Why don't you just present the facts and let the reader decide what literary narrative to assign to the story?
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...
Of course, isn't that convenient that they carry greater emotional weight...
It's like telling the average person that your geiger counter reads 3.6 roentgens. That doesn't mean anything to them.
Better yet, compare it to olden times like the great depression, and give the reader more context.
Scott Adams uses the analogy of different groups seeing a completely different movie on the screen.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2020/mar/24...