Workers in downtown Manhattan. Momo Takahashi/BI The SEC could soon reduce the number of times companies have to report earnings. Companies have complained that quarterly reports are costly and time-consuming. Here's how fewer reports could affect white-collar jobs across legal, accounting, and communications. A shake-up could finally be coming for quarterly earnings, and could rattle an ecosystem full of white-collar workers plying their trade as lawyers, communications pros, and data providers. The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a rule Tuesday that would reduce how often public companies must report results, cutting the requirement from four times a year to twice. Under the plan, companies would file one semiannual report and one annual report. The push for fewer earnings reports ramped up last fall, after President Donald Trump asked the regulator to investigate whether fewer earnings reports might benefit companies.…