Table P-25 contains the number (in thousands) of men 16 years of age and older who were employed in the United States for the months from January 1993 to October 2003. Use Minitab to do a multiplicative decomposition of these data and generate forecasts for the next 12 months. Does a multiplicative decomposition appear to be appropriate in this case? Explain. Is there a strong seasonal component in these data? Are you surprised? Do the forecasts seem reasonable?

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TABLE P-25 Year Jan. Feb. M Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. c N Dec 1993 63.344 63,621 64.023 64.482 65,350 66,412 67001 66861 65,808 65,961 65.779 65.545 1994 64.434 64,564 64,936 65,492 66,340 67.230 67,649 67,717 66,997 67.424 67313 67.292 67,219 67,049 966 66.333 66,758 67.646 6 1996 66,006 66,481 66,961 67415 68,258 69.298 69,819 69,533 68,614 69,099 68,565 68.434 1997 67,640 67,981 68,573 69,105 69,968 70,619 71,157 70,890 69,890 70,215 70.328 69,849 1998 68,932 69,197 69,506 70348 70,856 71.618 72049 71,537 70,866 71219 71,256 70,930 1999 69,992 70,084 70.544 70,877 71,470 72.312 72,803 72.348 71,603 71,825 71,797 71,699 2000 71862 72.177 72,501 73,006 73,236 74.267 74.420 74,352 73.391 73,616 73.497 73.338 2001 72,408 72.505 72.725 73,155 73,313 74,007 74,579 73,714 73,483 73,228 72.690 72.547 2002 71.285 71.792 71,956 72.483 73.230 73,747 74.210 73,870 73,596 73,513 72,718 72.437 2003 71,716 72.237 72,304 72,905 73,13 73,89474.269 74,032 73,715 73,979