Assignment task: Assume you are VP of Analytics for Google. You recently prepared a review of annual market sales for various retail sectors (as defined by NAICS codes). These data were requested by the Google Executive Team who said they provided useful perspectives about the historical size, seasonality, and trend of various markets. You've just learned that the Executive Team wants additional insights into what the future will look like for these NAICS codes. Specifically, you need refer to market size data from the US Census Bureau to do the following:
1. State one NAICS code of interest to you and its description (in the subject line is fine).
2. Use the spreadsheet (see the worksheet labeled "Work1") associated with this Discussion Thread to calculate a forecast of sales for every month from August 2023 through July 2024. Your "look-back" used to build your forecast model should be at least 24 months of actual data. Be sure to state the look-back you used to build your forecast.
3. Provide the "Next 12 Months" sales total, the "Past 12 Months" sales total, and the $ change and % change of the former compared to the latter. Also share the SMAPE value. Include any supplemental insights or charts to portray any perspective(s) generated by your analysis that you would like to share.
4. Draw insights from your analysis.
5. In one paragraph or less, summarize the outlook of your chosen market (i.e., NAICS code) based on your forecast.