(WSB Radio)  The rest of the nation may be seeing a bounce back in jobs, but not metro Atlanta.

"The Atlanta-Sandy Springs=Marietta area employment outlook is actually one of the weakest in the nation," says Beth Herman, with Manpower, Inc.  "We are lagging the rest of the nation and we are lagging most major metropolitan cities."

Manpower's quarterly survey of local companies shows the Atlanta area job growth outlook is sluggish, at best.

"9% of the companies would increase their staff payroll, while 11% would decrease," Herman tells WSB.  That minus 2 level may seem like bad news, but it does mark an improvement over the level of a year ago.

"It's definitively stronger than a year ago," says Herman, "and pretty stable with first quarter results.

"A year ago the net employment outlook was a negative 8.  Now it's a negative 2.  So that's a positive trend," she says.

Another positive trend is stability in the metro Atlanta market. 

"A full 78% of the companies polled say they're going to maintain," says Herman.  "We're neither increasing or decreasing.  That's a very significant number, and that's a very high number, even historically."

For the coming quarter, job prospects appear best in Nondurable Goods Manufacturing, Professional & Business Services, Education & Health Services and Leisure & Hospitality. Employers in Transportation & Utilities, Wholesale & Retail Trade, Financial Activities, Other Services and Government plan to reduce staffing levels, while hiring in Construction, Durable Goods Manufacturing and Information is expected to remain unchanged.

Nationally, things are looking better than here in Atlanta.

Of the 18,000 U.S. employers surveyed, 16% expect to increase their staff levels during the second quarter, while 8% expect to reduce their payrolls. Seventy-three percent expect no change in hiring, and 3% are undecided about their hiring plans.