It appears that the number of people employed by a typical American software firm decreased in the 1980s and 1990s. This trend is borne out by two studies, conducted 20 years apart. In a large 1980 sample of randomly chosen American software firms, the median size of the firms* workforce populations was 65. When those same firms were studied again in 2000. the median size was 57.
Which of the following points to the most serious logical flaw in the reasoning above?
A. The median number of employees in American firms in many industries decreased during the 1980s and 1990s.
B. During the 1980s and 1990s. many software firms increased the extent to which they relied on subcontractors to write code.
C. The data in the studies refer only to companies that existed in 1980.
D. Tile studies focused on the number of employees, but there are many ways of judging a firm’s size. such as revenues and profits.
E. The median number of employees is not as sound a measure of the number of employees employed in an industry as is the mean number of employees, which accounts for the vast size of the few large firms that dominate most industries.
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Hey everyone.
Please let me know how you separate between C and E.
i understand why C is right, but still dont understand why E is wrong.
Lets say i had in 1980 three companies - that all had 50 workers.
and in 2000 - we have one company with 2 workers, one company with 5 workers and one company with 1,000,000 workers. the median will be lower but the total number of workers will be higher in 2000 than in 1980.
Am i missing something?
thanks.