Seriously. Haven't you ever wondered that?
Let's just take a look at the past year.
GDP
Q1 2009: Economy shrinks a more-than-expected 6.1% in Q1
Q2 2009: GDP declines 1 percent, better than expected
Q3 2009: Wall St rises after Q3 GDP stronger than expected
Q4 2009: Stocks Rise After Better-than-expected GDP Report
Manufacturing
March, 2009: Sales of durable goods better than expected in March
April, 2009: Manufacturing Slowed Less Than Expected in April
May, 2009: Manufacturing performs better than expected
June, 2009: Manufacturing index shrinks less than expected
July, 2009: Manufacturing Sector Contracts At Slower Than Expected Pace In July
August, 2009: Industrial Production Better Than Expected in Aug.
September, 2009: Industrial output up more than expected in Sept.
October, 2009: Manufacturing Grew Faster Than Expected In October
November, 2009: US industrial output rises more than expected in Nov
December, 2009: Manufacturing grew faster than expected in December
January, 2010: U.S. Industrial Production Increases More Than Expected
Jobs:
March, 2009: New jobless claims take unexpected drop
April, 2009: U.S. Jobless Claims Rise More Than Expected
May, 2009: New Jobless Claims Rise Less Than Expected
June, 2009: US job losses worse than expected
July, 2009: Stocks Slide on Worse-Than-Expected Jobs Report
August, 2009: New Jobless Claims Drop More Than Expected
September, 2009: US job losses worse than expected
October, 2009: Unemployment soars to 10.2 percent faster than expected
November, 2009: Unemployment Rate Unexpectedly Falls To 10 Percent
December, 2009: U.S. Cuts More Jobs Than Expected In December
January, 2010: January Jobs Data Better Than Expected
February, 2010: Stocks jump after better-than-expected jobs report
Retail sales
March, 2009: U.S. retail sales fall less than expected
April, 2009: Retail Sales Down More Than Expected
May, 2009: Most U.S. retailers' May sales miss expectations
June, 2009: U.S. June retail sales rise more than expected
July, 2009: Latest Consumer Spending Data Much Worse Than Expected
August, 2009: Better Than Expected Retail Sales Lifts Markets
September, 2009: Retail sales fall less than expected
October, 2009: Retail sales rise faster-than-expected
November, 2009: November Retail Sales Higher Than Expected
December, 2009: December retail sales come in better than expected
January, 2010: Retail sales post stronger-than-expected gain
Housing Starts
March, 2009: U.S. Stocks Advance After Unexpected Rebound in Housing Starts
April, 2009: US Housing starts dropped unexpectedly in April
May, 2009: Housing Starts Jump By Much More Than Expected In May
June, 2009: Housing starts rise more than expected
July, 2009: U.S. housing starts drop unexpectedly
August, 2009: August Housing Starts Fall less Than Expected
September, 2009: Home Building Figures Come in Weaker Than Expected
October, 2009: Housing starts take unexpected tumble
November, 2009: Housing starts rise less than expected
December, 2009: Housing Starts Show Much Steeper Than Expected Drop
January, 2010: Housing Construction Up More than Expected
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Etc., etc., etc.
I'm not cherry picking. The above are the results of simple Google searches which yielded in excess of 300,000,000 results. It took me 30 minutes. You don't need to cherry pick articles when you've got over three hundred million of them to choose from.
You see, every time you see phrases like "unexpected" or "less than expected" or "more than expected" in a news story on the economy (and that would be in pretty much every blessed news story on the economy, like, ever) the expectations they're referring to are those of economic forecasters. Typically, these forecasts represent a consensus, or average prediction, of economists. Okay, that's an average, so in any group of predictions there's probably a few who got it right, and they are duly rewarded for their luck. This is known as a Nobel Prize.
So basically what I'm saying is, when it comes to economists, actual results almost never meet expectations. The technical phrase for that is always being wrong.
To get more reliable predictions, see here.