What adjective would you use to describe a rise in the unemployment rate from around 5% to above 11% in three months?

I understand and agree with the idea that emotionally laden words don’t always add much to the story, but in this case I think ‘soar’ is probably close to the mark. Australia’s unemployment rate peaked at 11.2% in 1992, and has only gone above 7% for a couple of months in the last 20 years.

https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/australia/unemployment...

"Australia unemployment may rise to 11.1% by June" would be a reasonable headline for this specific article.

CNN engagement will plunge with these kind of neutral titles

Australian unemployment may double by June ?

“Australia may see a rise in the unemployment rate from around 5% to above 11% in three months“

"Doubles".

I always had a similar distaste for headlines with words like "blast" and "slam", but learned recently[0] that these are standard abbreviations for headline writers to save space. Your words are not on that list from Wikipedia, but "soar" & "crash" might be used in such a way to shorten "{in,de}crease". (But certainly not "skyrocket"!)

Of course, isn't that convenient that they carry greater emotional weight...

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22290486

Are "rise" and "fall" not perfectly acceptable neutral alternatives?

I think most readers wouldn't know how to interpret 11.1% unemployment. Is that good or bad? How good or bad?

It's like telling the average person that your geiger counter reads 3.6 roentgens. That doesn't mean anything to them.

Also state if that’s above/below target/limit/guideline/"we have no idea but it sounds nice"?

if you present the current unemployment rate in the article to give the reader some context, they will be able to conclude whether it's good or bad themselves.

Better yet, compare it to olden times like the great depression, and give the reader more context.

For a country that hasn't had a recession in 25 years, it's really bad.

I believe that the growing political polarization and anger we are seeing is in no small part due to the government and media "implanting" invalid perceptions of reality into people's minds (skillful use of language being only one of the many techniques used), and different groups each receive a different projection.

Scott Adams uses the analogy of different groups seeing a completely different movie on the screen.

Considering the graphs, "skyrocket" doesn't seem inappropriate...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2020/mar/24...

German news are mostly in comparison much more factual and neutral compared to this. I prefer the German news because of this.

Highly charged headlines drive clicks, thereby increasing ad revenue.

Don't forget "whopping."