Unemployment Rate
GCU's Spring graduation is near the end of April each year, so you will likely be looking to start a job in May a few years from now. How hard will it be to find a job? The goal of this project is to estimate the unemployment rate in May of the year you graduate. Why do we want to use the data for May?
1. Make a scatter plot.
2. Find a linear function to model the data.
3. Does the linear function look like a good model? Explain why or why not.
4. Solve for the zero(s) of the function. Give each x-value and also state which year each one corresponds to.
5. Explain what the zero(s) mean in the context of this particular data set.
6. Use the model to predict the unemployment rate in your graduation year.
Unemployment Rate Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics https://data.bls.gov/
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2004 5.7 5.6 5.8 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.5 5.4 5.4 5.5 5.4 5.4
2005 5.3 5.4 5.2 5.2 5.1 5.0 5.0 4.9 5.0 5.0 5.0 4.9
2006 4.7 4.8 4.7 4.7 4.6 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.4
2007 4.6 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.4 4.6 4.7 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.7 5.0
2008 5.0 4.9 5.1 5.0 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.1 6.1 6.5 6.8 7.3
2009 7.8 8.3 8.7 9.0 9.4 9.5 9.5 9.6 9.8 10.0 9.9 9.9
2010 9.7 9.8 9.9 9.9 9.6 9.4 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.8 9.4
2011 9.1 9.0 9.0 9.1 9.0 9.1 9.0 9.0 9.0 8.8 8.6 8.5
2012 8.2 8.3 8.2 8.2 8.2 8.2 8.2 8.1 7.8 7.8 7.8 7.9
2013 7.9 7.7 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.5 7.3 7.2 7.2 7.2 7.0 6.7
2014 6.6 6.7 6.7 6.3 6.3 6.1 6.2 6.1 5.9 5.8 5.8