Last year a large firm set a goal of decreasing its workforce by 25 percent. █████ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ██ ██ ██████████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ █████ █████████ ████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ███ █████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ████████
The company eliminated divisions that made up 25 percent of its workforce without hiring any new people, so why did its total workforce only shrink by 15 percent?
The correct answer must explain why the overall workforce shrunk by a lesser amount than would be expected based on the divisions eliminated. Since no new people were hired, it must be that some employees from the eliminated divisions remained within the company in another capacity.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ███████████ ████ ██ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████████
The three divisions ████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ████████
The profitability of the eliminated divisions does not affect the number of employees remaining post-elimination. The doesn't explain why the workforce didn’t shrink by the expected 25 percent.
Normal attrition in ███ ████████ █████████ █████████ ██ ██████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████
If the other divisions also lost employees, then the total workforce would have shrunk more than expected, not less. This just makes the stimulus more confusing, which doesn't help us.
Some of the █████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ██████████ ███ █████ ████ ███████
The reason why any particular employee left the company is irrelevant; all that matters is how many employees left. This does not explain why the total reduction was smaller than expected.
As the divisions ████ █████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ██████████
This explains why the total workforce didn’t decrease by 25 percent: some of the employees stayed in the company by moving to a different division rather than leaving the company entirely.
Employees in the ████████ █████████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████████
This is irrelevant because it addresses workload, not the actual number of employees. The right answer must explain why the total reduction was smaller than expected, which this does not.