Survey says ...

Forbes’ publishing, Tuesday, of a Manpower Inc. survey as it relates to the Amarillo economy should be viewed skeptically, given its timing on the heels of layoffs of 250 Owens Corning workers in Amarillo.

The Manpower survey elevates Amarillo to a fifth-place tie in a ranking of cities with the strongest employment outlook for the second quarter of this year.

But in taking a closer look at the Manpower survey in December, when the company said Amarillo had the fourth-strongest employment outlook for the first quarter of 2009, we learned to take Manpower’s findings with a grain of salt.

The December survey showed 24 percent of Amarillo-area companies planned to hire in the first quarter.

But we discovered that the temporary staffing firm polled about 35 of the companies it serves. And those companies said they planned a “slight increase — slight,” an Amarillo Manpower staffing specialist said then.

Do the math: 24 percent of 35 companies is nine businesses, and we’re rounding up.

If nine businesses hired one or two employees each, we’re talking nine to 18 jobs.

Amarillo started this downturn in a better position than most cities to weather it.

We’ve published tons of stories that show just that, with numbers I’m more comfortable counting on.