The comments about the December jobs report were not the only thing misleading — the report was, too.

The Labor Department reported that only 148,000 jobs were created last month — considerably fewer than the 195,000 or so jobs that the “experts” were expecting.

But the number was kept artificially low by a seasonal adjustment that wasn’t comparable to the one done a year earlier, in December 2016.

And it’s unusual for one December’s adjustment to be so different from the previous December.

If the adjustments had been consistent, last Friday’s number would have shown growth of another 133,000. Add the growth that was announced (148,000 jobs) and the seasonal adjustment difference (133,000) and this December’s growth would have been a very, very healthy 281,000 jobs.

There was another adjustment that made Friday’s job number look worse than it would have been.

In the December figure released last Friday, the government deducted 38,000 jobs that it thinks were lost but can’t prove were lost because they happened inside very small companies.

A year earlier, in December 2016, only 17,000 jobs were deducted for this reason.

Again, if Labor has simply remained consistent, December’s jobs gains could have been as high as 300,000.

As I’ve explained many times before, the government’s economic statistics are not expected to be completely accurate the first time they are announced — even though Wall Street and the media treat them like they are.

That’s why the government does numerous revisions.

In fact, last Friday Labor announced significant changes to the October and November numbers it previously announced.

October went from a gain of 244,000 to only 211,000, while November went up from 228,000 jobs to 252,000 jobs.

What’s this all mean?

It means that President Trump had better keep a close watch on the people putting this economic data together.

So far, the economy is one of the bright spots in the Trump administration. But that could change with just a couple of carefully placed seasonal adjustments.