A construction company is preparing for a nine-month project, and will need to develop a staffing plan. The company can assign up to 30 of its own full-time employees to the project, and will hire short-term contract employees to make up any shortage in meeting the personnel requirements. Company employees earn $6,000 per month, while short-term contract employees make $8,600/month. Contract employees can be assigned to the project beginning in any month, and their contract period is two months. The number of workers required for the project by month is shown below:

Determine the optimal staffing plan for the project.

Month of Project 2 3 4 5 6. 7 8. 6. Required 15 23 59 65 71 77 64 43 21 1.