VeritasKarishma GMATNinja -- I chose E on this unfortunately.
Is my reasoning for eliminating E accurate in your view ?
Yes -
CostMart plans to hire exclusively from within Metropolis only for this warehouse No -
CostMart does not plan to hire exclusively from within Metropolis only for this warehouse If
yes, this plan to hire locally only will offset the losses from the 20 % bankruptcy. Now how much of an offset, we don't know. Here are 3 scenario's
1a) they could hire all of folks (all local) who lost their jobs since their entry (all of the 20 % of folks who lost their jobs)
1b) they could hire only 50 % of the folks (all local) who lost their jobs since Cost Mart entered.
1c) they could hire only 0.0001 % of the folks (all local folks) who lost their jobs since CostMart entered.
Hence depending on the scenario, this may weaken the conclusion (if scenario 1a or 1b played out) or strengthen the conclusion (if scenario 1c played out)
If
No, CostMart will hire folks locally & internationally. Now this may or may not offset the losses from the 20 % retail bankruptcies from Metropolis.
Let's say
CostMart hired 50 % local and 50 % international
2a) they could hire all of folks who lost their jobs since Cost Mart's entry into Metropolis [CostMart may have to fill so many new job openings, that even though they are hiring 50 % only from Metropolis , it is still enough to cover for all jobs lost in Metropolis since CostMart's entry]
2b) they could hire only half of the folks who lost their jobs since Cost Mart entered.
2c) they could hire only 0.0001 % of the folks who lost their jobs since CostMart entered.
Hence depending on the scenario, this may weaken the conclusion (if scenario 2a or 2b played out) or strengthen the conclusion (if scenario 2c played out)
Because between the two paths (
Yes | No) , each paths have no CLEAR strengthener / weakener -- hence E is not optimal ?
(E) is relevant but not correct. It is one aspect of economic benefit that Costmart could bring to the region in the form of increased employment. But a better, more wholesome question would certainly be whether there are economic benefits to allowing Costmart.
Also the use of the word "exclusively" makes option (E) incorrect. Does it matter whether Costmart employs "exclusively" from the city? No. Say they get their manager from outside but employ others from the city. That could still be great for the city.