The number of employees at Dakota's restaurant has fluctuated over the past nine years. The following table lists the number of employees on the payroll at the end of each year for the years 1983 to 1991. The restaurant would like you to forecast employment in 1992 by using the linear exponential smoothing technique.

Year   Employee

1983 1030

1984 1020

1985 1041

1986 1050

1987 1062

1988 1075

1989 1130

1990 1135

1991 1175

1. Using the initial estimate of the slope to be zero with A = 0.2 and B = 0.2, determine the predicted value for employment at the end of 1992.

2. Using the least squares estimate for the slope from the first three years of data, redo part 1.

3. Compare the predicted values in parts 1. and 2.