How grateful I was this past week, for example, to be able to share with my colleagues the news that reporters tie for fourth with interior designers and event planners for having the "sexiest jobs," at least according to 5,000 workers surveyed by Salary.com.

Firefighters "hosed down the competition" to win the title of sexiest job, with 16 percent of those surveyed citing their job as sexiest, according to the Massachusetts-based software company. Flight attendants ranked second, followed by chief executives. Also making the list were nurses, teachers, doctors and lawyers.

Such is just one sample of the surveys marketers conduct, then share with business editors, with the hope of drawing attention to their companies' products.

It often works, primarily because though often frivolous, surveys are fun.

LifeSavers clearly is going for a laugh with its recent "Dish On Office Life Survey" revealing the complex inner workings of the office candy dish.

If you've suspected all along that women are the candy dishers, you're right. LifeSavers surveyed more than 1,000 consumers who work in office settings and found 69 percent of office candy dish owners are women while only 31 percent are men.

Regardless, candy dishing has its benefits.

Seven percent of candy dish owners say romances occur frequently in the office, versus 1 percent of people who don't have candy dishes in their workplaces, according to LifeSavers. In addition, they are twice as likely to say they are "extremely satisfied" with their jobs as non-candy dish owners and are more likely to have gotten a bonus in the past year.

Sometimes, survey information, admittedly, is even useful.

At least 30 years has lapsed from the time I last placed a tooth under my pillow to a recent night when my 6-year-old placed one under hers. I was pretty certain the 25 cents I used to receive wouldn't cut it.

Luckily, Securian Dental confirmed my suspicion with its recent survey on Tooth Fairy economics.

It seems the average sum left by the Tooth Fairy this year is up 20 cents from $1.58 in 2004, an increase of 12.5 percent - well above the rate inflation.

Toothless kids have it pretty good, Securian's Marty Weiland points out, when you consider how that compares with stock market performance. Over a comparable period, the Dow Jones industrial average increased just less than 2 percent.

In case you were wondering, Securian's survey, conducted as part of Children's Dental Health Month in February, showed tooth values are all over the place.

The Tooth Fairy forked over 10 cents at one extreme, and $25 at the other.

How's that for news you can use?

lisac@sltrib.com