The labor force is made up of people at least 16 years of age who are either employed or actively looking for work.
The participation rate is the percentage of people at least 16 years of age who are in the labor force. The unemployment rate is the percentage of the labor force who are unemployed. The participation and unemployment rates in March of various years are shown in Table 52.

Let P(t) and U(t) be the participation and unemployments rates, respectively, both in March at t years since 2010.
a. Use technology to construct a scatterplot that compares the years and the participation rates. Does the graph of P1t2 = -0.41t + 64.74 come close to the data points?
b. Use technology to construct a scatterplot that compares the years and the unemployment rates. Does the graph of U1t2 = -0.86t + 9.90 come close to the data points?
c. Find P(3) and U(3). What do your results mean in this situation?
d. Use the results you found in part (c) to estimate the percentage of people at least 16 years of age who were employed in March 2013.
e. A student says that even though the unemployment rate has decreased, the number of people working has not in- creased because the participation rate has decreased. Using the data in Table 52, estimate the number of people at least 16 years of age who were employed in 2010. Do the same for 2015. Is the student correct?

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Table 52 Participation and Unemployment Rates in March Participation Unemployment Population at Least Rate Rate percent) 9.9 9.0 8.2 6.6 5.5 16 Years of Age (millions) Year percent) 64.9 64.2 63.8 63.2 237 239 242.6 247.2 250.2 2010 2012 2014 2015 627