A study conducted in September and October of 2010 found that fewer than half of employers who hired new college graduates last academic year plan to definitely do so again (The Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2010). Suppose the hiring intentions of the respondents were as follows:
Six months later, a sample of 500 employers were asked their hiring intentions and gave the following responses:
a. Specify the competing hypotheses to test whether the proportions from the initial study have changed.
b. Calculate the value of the test statistic.
c. At a 5% significance level, what is the critical value?
d. What is the conclusion to the hypothesis test? Interpret your results.