On June 2, 2014, the City Council of Seattle, Washington passed a local ordinance to increase the minimum wage of the city to $15 an hour, giving the city the highest minimum wage in the United States, which will be phased in over seven years, to be fully implemented by 2021.
For other uses, see Forecast (disambiguation). Forecasting is the process of making predictions of the future based on past and present data and most commonly by analysis of trends. A commonplace example might be estimation of some variable of interest at some specified future date. Prediction is a similar, but more general term.
Cycle forecasting is the process of making predictions about the future of the economy by analyzing economic data. The business cycle is the pattern of economic booms and busts that is characteristic of developed economies. Since the Great Depression, which began in 1929, the U.S. economy has experienced alternating periods of rapid economic growth and economic slowdowns.