The following data represent the average number of employees in outlets of a large consumer electronics retailer:

a. Construct a time-series plot of this time series. Does it appear that a linear trend exists in the time series?
b. Calculate forecasts for each of the years in the time series. Use a smoothing constant of 0.25 and single exponential smoothing.
c. Calculate the MAD value for the forecasts you generated in part b.
d. Construct a single exponential smoothing forecast for 2011. Use a smoothing constant of 0.25.