To be honest, this is just kind of how jobs reports have tended to work since Bush. It is kind of a consequence of both how reporting has failed to really contextualize how jobs reports tend to release in the US, as well as some (arguable) juking of the stats that make it easier to show positive growth in one area and then use the correctance to show the worse numbers.
Basically the Bureau of Labor and Statistics releases a monthly report, and at the beginning of the year it is based more on statistical modeling (“hockey stick growth! I got $5 today to mow the lawn, and $10 the next day to do it. If this rate keeps up, by next year I’ll be pulling in a couple billion.”), then they issue corrections as the actual data rolls in and either confirms or denies their modeling.
24 hour news (cable and online) got into the habit of basically reporting on the monthly reports like they are gospel, when realistically they are only reliable around November or December. I think the Fed encourages it too because it’s quietly one of the levers they can use to inspire foreign investment.
But, it is difficult to adequately describe how seriously the nerds at the BLS take their jobs. They gather and report real-ass data that you can go look at pretty much back to the 60s. This rhythm must be their compromise with the partisan pressures of the executive.
Your last point is a fair one, but it’s also still important to mention because that specific strain of “it’s all political, who cares” is what creates tolerance for a lack of transparency and public accountability.
If anyone wants to take this problem seriously, it is also important to understand that even if what is released as an executive summary is deeply flawed, there are real civil servants there still trying to do the best they can with as little as possible. The data is all still published. We, as consumers of journalism, really should be pressuring editors to actually fix the way they uncritically gobble up and report anything that the DoL puts out.
Or, really, reporting on it ourselves and trying to learn and maintain a common set of journalistic ethics.