A little media quiz this morning

If you've been paying attention, the following quiz should be easy. It deals with this story from Reuters:

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits rose ____________ last week in a sign concerns about a weak economy were sapping an already beleaguered labor market, data showed on Thursday.

Applications for unemployment benefits climbed to 428,000 in the week ending September 10 from an upwardly revised 417,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said.

Which of the following words was removed from the story?

• a) sharply
• b) slightly
• c) unexpectedly
• d) predictably

And the answer is ... c) unexpectedly!

To re-quote Jim Geraghty,

If I find myself in a fistfight, I hope it's with one of these economists who are always getting quoted by Reuters or Bloomberg, because then I'll rest assured that I'll always have the element of surprise. These guys never expect everything.

Semi-serious question: does the Reuters style book require that its journalists refer to all increases in jobless claims as "unexpected"?