Spokane is No. 1, right? Well, actually, it's ninth. Except for when it's 19th. Or when it's 51st. Or 77th.

Then there was the day recently when Spokane was tied for worst. That was the day Forbes magazine published its ranking of cities by job-growth outlook for 2012. There at the bottom was Spokane, complete with an unflattering photograph of Monroe Street.

As the news went viral, reactions on Facebook, Twitter, and other social-media sites ran the gamut. For some, the news reinforced their pessimism about the Spokane community. For others, it provided the perfect platform for lambasting local government. Some characterized it as motivation to improve. Others tried to kill the messenger, saying disparaging things about Forbes in particular and the media in general.

But aside from generating a glancing blow to the city's image, the article has little relevance to Spokane and its business community. Despite the hubbub, it sheds no light on what actually is happening or is likely to happen in the coming year. Rather, it's probably an inaccurate representation of what will happen in the job market this year.

Eastern Washington University economist Grant Forsyth's 2012 projection for job growth in the Inland Northwest is a range of negative 0.6 percent to a positive 1.6 percent growth. His prediction is that Spokane County will end 2012 with a 0.5 percent increase in employment, or the addition of roughly 1,200 jobs in Spokane County.

That's nothing to get excited about and is far from a positive spin. Prior to the recession, average annual job growth hovered around a modest 2 percent, and this projection falls well short of that.

Forbes based its story on a Manpower Inc. survey of business owners and managers in Spokane and nationwide regarding their hiring plans for the upcoming year. Consequently, the projected 4 percent decrease in hiring in the Spokane area shown in the Manpower survey and Forsyth's projections are somewhat of an apples-to-oranges comparison. Even so, Forsyth's numbers are more likely to be on the mark come year-end.

Spokane shows up on national best-and-worst lists regularly, and its rank on those lists is all over the place.

In 2008, Forbes ranked the city ninth on the magazine's Best Places For Business.

And of course Forbes isn't the only one to tab the Lilac City. Spokane recently ranked 19th on CNN Money's Best Places To Retire list.

If you aren't an empty nester, though, beware. Spokane only ranked 51st on Parenting magazine's list of Best Cities For Families.

And entrepreneurs who want good quality of life should take note. Spokane is 77th among the Best Places To Live and Launch, says CNN Money.

What about Forbes' list of Best Cities For Working Mothers? Sorry, ladies. Spokane didn't even get a nod.

Lists like those mentioned above are fun to read and interesting to look at, and experts in the convention and business-recruitment industries likely argue effectively that such lists have a bearing on people's behavior.

Others would argue that any PR is good PR, and even a bad mark is better than not being mentioned at all. I don't fall in that camp, but I do believe that, as a business community, we shouldn't get too excited about high rankings or too troubled over poor rankings. While most lists are based on a set of logical parameters, there's room for interpretation and subjectivity in nearly all of them.

We know who we are—the good, the bad, the impressive, and the embarrassing. Forbes, CNN Money, Parenting, and other national publications don't.

If they want to emphasize Spokane's strengths or expose its perceived weaknesses, let them. But don't let it distract us from building a stronger local economy for the Inland Northwest.