With a record number of new companies starting up in Derderia and with previously established companies
adding many jobs, a record number of new jobs were created last year in the Derderian economy. This year,
previously established companies will not be adding as many new jobs overall as such companies added last
year. Therefore, unless a record number of companies start up this year, Derderia will not break its record for
new jobs created. Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument relies?
A. Each year, new companies starting up create more new jobs overall than do previously established companies.
B. This year, the new companies starting up will not provide substantially more jobs per company than did new
companies last year.
C. Companies established last year will not add a greater number of jobs overall this year than they did last year.
D. This year, the overall number of jobs created by previously established companies will be less than the overall
number of jobs lost at those companies.
E. The number of jobs created in the Derderian economy last year was substantially larger than the number of
jobs lost last year.
Familiar stimulus but somewhat tougher answer choices.
The prompt states that older companies will not add more jobs than newer companies and the argument concludes that a record number of new startups must be formed this year to compensate for the number of jobs lost due to the older companies.
for example if 100 jobs are lost this year then it could be recovered by 100 new startups with 1 job per startup or 5 new startups with 20 jobs per startup.
So for the conclusion to be valid, the new startups will ONLY reach a record number if they offer less number of jobs per startup.
Clear answer choice is B.
I would now recommend process of elimination in these type of questions as I find the best approach to be prethinking.