A Multiplicative Seasonal Arima Model for Nigerian Unemployment Rates

Time series analysis of Nigerian Unemployment Rates is done. The data used is monthly from 1948 to 2008. The time plot reveals a slightly positive trend with no clear seasonality. A multiplicative seasonal model is suggestive given seasonality that typically tends to increase with time. Seasonal differencing once produced a series with no trend nor discernible stationarity. A non-seasonal differencing of the seasonal differences yielded a series with no trend but with a correlogram revealing stationarity of order 12, a nonseasonal autoregressive component of order 3 and a seasonal moving average component of order 1. A multiplicative seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model, (3, 1, 0)x(0, 1, 1)12, is fitted to the series. It has been shown to be adequate.