The U.S. Department of Labor gathers and publishes statistics concerning the labor market. The file Workforce contains data on the size of the U.S. civilian non institutional population of people 16 years and over (in thousands) and the U.S. civilian non institutional workforce of people 16 years and over (in thousands) for 1984-2011. The workforce variable reports the number of people in the population who have a job or are actively looking for a job. (Data extracted from Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, www.bls.gov.)
a. Plot the time series for the U.S. civilian non institutional population of people 16 years and older.
b. Compute the linear trend forecasting equation.
c. Forecast the U.S. civilian non institutional population of people 16 years and older for 2012 and 2013.
d. Repeat (a) through (c) for the U.S. civilian non institutional workforce of people 16 years and older.