The labour market condition in a region where the unemployment rate skyrocketed from 6 to 10 percent is no better than in the region where the rate fell from 13 to 12 percent.
I can't find a word that fits there except "skyrocketed". "Soared" or "surged" does not work there for some reason. It just does not sound right to my ears.
I am happy with how skyrocketed sounds, but the word is informal. And I am writing an academic paper.
Best Answer
Both "soared" and "surge" work perfectly fine in this context. Perhaps they don't sound right to you because you've never heard them properly used. Some examples:
and in the same story:
Figurative synonyms such as rocketed, shot up, swelled, and others are also common.
If you don't want to use figurative language -- and there is no reason why you shouldn't, even in an academic paper -- then rose sharply or increased rapidly both work. Example:
In the future, try doing a Google search on a particular word combination such as "rate surge" before assuming it is not idiomatic. You might find that it's actually quite common.