When PricewaterhouseCoopers Saratoga released its 2005/2006 Human Capital Index Report it indicated that the average hiring cost for an American company to fill a job vacancy in 2004 was $3,270. Sample data for recent job hires is in a file entitled Hired.

a. Calculate the variance and standard deviation for the sample data.

b. Construct a box and whisker plot. Does this plot indicate that extreme values (outliers) may be inflating the measures of spread calculated in part a?

c. Suggest and calculate a measure of spread that is not affected by outliers.