KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- The Knoxville Chamber is lauding a new survey released Tuesday by the Manpower Group and published by Forbes Magazine which named Knoxville the best city for employment outlook.

A quarter of Knoxville businesses expect to add jobs in the coming Spring quarter.

“Through our existing industry visits we have seen companies beginning to hire again,” says Rhonda Rice, executive vice president of the Knoxville Chamber. “As the economy has picked up, even if only slightly, Knoxville companies are feeling more confident and are proceeding with expansion plans that have been on hold for the last couple of years.”

Knoxville tied with the Greenville-Mauldin-Easley, South Carolina region for the top slot with a “a 24% net employment outlook, the percentage of employers that expect to add employees (26% and 25%, respectively) minus the percentage that expect to reduce their workforce (a mere 2% and 1%, respectively).”

Manpower surveyed more than 18,000 businesses in 100 metropolitan areas to determine how many of them expect to hire or lay off employees.