Answer
The unemployement rate increased 0.615 % per year.
Work Step by Step
1. Determine the total amount of time between $January \space 2003$ and $July \space 2009$.
new - old = 2009 - 2003 = 6 years
new - old = july (7) - january (1) = 6 months (or 0.5 year)
- Total time = 6 years and 6 months ( 6.5 years )
2. Calculate the average rate of change.
$\frac {new \space - \space old}{length \space of \space interval} = \frac {9.4 \% - 5.4 \%}{6.5 \space years} \approx$ 0.615% per year
