Go to the St. Louis Federal Reserve FRED database, and pull data on annual unemployment rates for the following countries, starting in 2000: United States (USAURNAA), Canada (CANURNAA), United Kingdom (GBRURNAA), Japan (JPNURNAA), and Germany (DEUURNAA).

Graph the data for all five countries on one graph by using the Add Data Series function, and download the data into an Excel table.

Note that the United States experienced a recession in 2001 and in 2008–2009.

a) Which country experienced the highest unemployment rate, and when? Which country experienced the lowest unemployment rate, and when?

b) Calculate the average unemployment rates for the U.S. during years of recession and when not in recession. How do they compare? Is this what you would expect?

c) Look at the graph of unemployment rates. Which countries seem to show similar trends? Which seem to behave differently than the rest?