Figures issued by the government of a certain country show that in 198

Question

Figures issued by the government of a certain country show that in 1980 the public sector and the private sector each employed the same number of people. Between 1980 and 1984, according to the government, total employment decreased in the public sector more than it increased in the private sector.

If, according to governmental figures, the unemployment rate in this country was the same in both 1980 and 1984, which of the following statements must be true about this country?

(A) Fewer people were in the labor force, as counted by the government, in 1984 than in 1980. 
(B) The competition for the available work increased between 1980 and 1984. 
(C) The government's figures for total employment increased between 1980 and 1984. 
(D) The number of people counted by the government as unemployed was the same in 1980 and 1984. 
(E) In 1984 more people sought work in the private sector than in the public sector

itoyj · Answer

Can someone please explain, why answer is A, and what is wrong with option E?

ankit9291 · Answer

E is sought work,? Sought means looking for.

You cannot assume that more people were looking for job in private sector

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800Dreamer · Answer

Hi, Can you please post the OE?

deelakmi · Answer

can someone explain how the answer is A

Hital · Answer

Can someone please explain how the answer is A?

jrk23 · Answer

Experts please explain why A is correct?

saukrit · Answer

How is the answer A. I understand that why E can't be correct but there is no clue as to why A is correct

Vigasimrair · Answer

Imagine we have 100 workers in private sector and 100 workers in public sector.
Then we should pay attention to the following part of the passage:

Between 1980 and 1984, according to the government, total employment decreased in the public sector more than it increased in the private sector.

Besides, we know that the total unemployment rate stays the same.

The only case it may be true is described in option A.,

(A) Fewer people were in the labor force, as counted by the government, in 1984 than in 1980.

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800Dreamer · Answer

Can you be please explain in more detail?

hsingh255 · Answer

+ in 1984, number of private employees = number of public employees 
+ 1980 - 1984, private employees increase < public job employees

Analysis: Since the increase was smaller than the decrease that must mean that there must have been a net decrease of employees. So the total number of employees decreased. 
Then the question said that the unemployment rate was the same. This means that    stayed the same. Since we know that number of employees went down, for the ratio to stay the same the total labour force must also go down.

A: correct as stated above 
B: For competition to increase either the number of jobs are decreasing or the labour force 
C: False as the rate stayed the same 
D: The rate is not the same as the number,
E: question says nothing about preferences

gvij2017 · Answer

total employment decreased in the public sector more than it increased in the private sector.

Simplified version of the above statement is that total emloyment decreased. 
But if the unemployment rate is same, then labour looking for jobs is also decreasing.

A is inline with above logic.

Hea234ven · Answer

Explanation: Assume that in 1980, total number of labor force = 10, of this 3 employed in the public sector and 3 employed in the private sector ( we are told that same number of people employed in both sector). IN 1980, unemployment rate would be 4/10 = 40%. We are also told that in 1984, the unemployment rate is also same as in 1980 (40%). We are told that both sector faced a decline in the number of employment, but public sector faced more decline than in private sector. Now look into the options:

A. Fewer people were in the labor force, as counted by the government, in 1984 than in 1980.   The competition for the available work increased between 1980 and 1984.   The government's figures for total employment increased between 1980 and 1984.    WRONG!

D.  The number of people counted by the government as unemployed was the same in 1980 and 1984.    WRONG!

E.  In 1984 more people sought work in the private sector than in the public sector.  [ We can't correctly determine the people's interest by the given information. It may be possible that the people who got job in the private sector were actually interested in the public sector but couldn't get chance in the public sector. Furthermore, how we can determine the interest of the unemployed people.. WRONG!

So, the correct answer would be A. Please let me know if u have any other confusion.

ChuHoaiNam · Answer

Figures issued by the government of a certain country show that in 1980 the public sector and the private sector each employed the same number of people. Between 1980 and 1984, according to the government, total employment decreased in the public sector more than it increased in the private sector.

If, according to governmental figures, the unemployment rate in this country was the same in both 1980 and 1984, which of the following statements must be true about this country?

(A) Fewer people were in the labor force, as counted by the government, in 1984 than in 1980. 
(B) The competition for the available work increased between 1980 and 1984. 
(C) The government's figures for total employment increased between 1980 and 1984. 
(D) The number of people counted by the government as unemployed was the same in 1980 and 1984. 
(E) In 1984 more people sought work in the private sector than in the public sector

X = number of people employed in public sector in 1980 = number of people employed in private sector in 1980
Y = number of people employed in public sector in 1984 ; Z = number of people employed in private sector in 1984

Now we have " Between 1980 and 1984, according to the government, total employment  decreased  in the public sector more than it  increased  in the private sector.". It means in 1984 X - Y > Z - X -> X+X > Y+Z -> Total number of people employed in 1980 > in 1984
A) Fewer people were in the labor force, as counted by the government, in 1984 than in 1980. ->  Correct 
B) The competition for the available work increased between 1980 and 1984. ->  Out of scope 
C) The government's figures for total employment increased between 1980 and 1984. ->  incorrect 
D) The number of people counted by the government as unemployed was the same in 1980 and 1984. -> We have "the unemployment rate in this country was the same in both 1980 and 1984" and we have " 2X > Y+ Z" it means number of people unemployed in 1980 > in 1984 ->  Incorrect 
E) In 1984 more people sought work in the private sector than in the public sector ->  Incorrect  -> fewer people in private sector doesnt mean more people sougt work

nedunurianurag · Answer

i NEED A CLEAR EXPLANATION OF THE ANSWER PLEASE. ACCORDING TO ME IT IS OPTION E

AndrewN · Answer

Hello, everyone. I see a lot of queries in the thread about options (A) and (E), so I thought I would take a moment to offer my thoughts on the question. The good news about a  must be true  question is that a lot of the guesswork (or pre-thinking) that can go into other questions can be bypassed. We can take comfort in knowing that our powers of inference should  not  be taxed.

For the mathematically inclined individual, the passage ought to be a piece of cake to break down.

1980:  the same number  of public and private sector employees
1984: decrease in public sector employees > increase in private sector employees

We can use  employees  because the figures reported for both years are given in  number of people  and  total employment , so we need not worry about percentages or proportions.

Absolutely correct. There is nothing to find fault with here. Based on the information provided, there are only two sectors of employment for the country under scrutiny: public or private. Note, again, that  total employment  means  people employed , or those  in the labor force . If the public and private sectors had equal numbers of employees in 1980, but then the public sector lost more workers than the private sector gained, then it  must be true  that, according to the government, the labor force has decreased on the whole. If you want an algebraic solution, how about we use  P , since it can conveniently refer to both public and private sector employees? How about we let the decrease in the public sector be 2 percent while the increase in the private sector be 1 percent?

1980: P | P → P + P = 2P
1984: (1 - 0.02)P | (1 + 0.01)P → 0.98P + 1.01P = 1.99P

The labor force on the whole has decreased. We could use any numbers we wanted for the percents, as long as we observed the inequality above that the decrease in one group must be greater than the increase in the other. The answer would be the same, showing a net decrease in P.

We have no idea what type of work was  available  in either year. All we have figures for is  total employment , not the number of jobs on the market. This should be an easy elimination.

If ever there were a reversal of an accurate conclusion, this would be it. As explained above, it must be true that total employment decreased between 1980 and 1984, according to the figures.

Again, stick to what the passage tells you. We are not provided information on the total working-age population in either year, and we have no idea what the unemployment situation may have looked like in 1980 or 1984. Thus, we are not in a position to say whether the  unemployed  population was the same or different from one year to the other.

I am guessing that the irregular past tense of the verb  to seek  is throwing people off here. We often hear of  job-seekers . This answer choice is simply speaking of that group of people in the past, as those who  sought work . The problem is that figures of total employment can only be used to tell the number of people employed in the public or private sector in a given year. We have no idea what job-seekers were aiming to do. It could be true that more people sought work in the  public  sector in 1984, but that there were fewer jobs to fill, or that those that were available required better credentials of candidates than those jobs that were available in the private sector. We are getting into a fun little side story now, but the point is that we  cannot  tell what job-seeking  preferences  or  actions  people may have had or taken by looking at employment figures alone. This is not a must-be-true option.

Perhaps the question makes more sense now. As always, good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

Carcass · Answer

Great explanation Sir

Carcass · Answer

This is one of the best questions from the GRE world. So it is not a joke. Following my explanation. I do not understand though why people lose themselves in nuances, loopholes, twists.....

Figures issued by the government of a certain country show that in 1980 the public sector and the private sector each employed the same number of people.

100 and 100. Both private and public sector

Between 1980 and 1984, according to the government,  total employment decreased in the public sector more than it increased in the private sector.

Total employment in the public went to 80 people and in the private went to 115.

Notice how the two % -20 and +15 are relative numbers because even if we have assumed that at the beginning the numbers were equal 100, we do not know the absolute numbers. The could be 1,000,000 and the % are different

(A)  Fewer people were in the labor force , as counted by the government, in 1984 than in 1980.

The only thing we might infer is that there were fewer people on the market. regardless of the relative numbers

(B)  The competition  for the available work increased between 1980 and 1984.

Not so many data about the competition

(C) The government's  figures for total employment increased  between 1980 and 1984.

We talk about the private sector and the public and employment of these two sectors. NOT the total one

(D) The  number of people counted  by the government as unemployed was the same in 1980 and 1984.

Out of scope

(E) In 1984  more people  sought  work  in the private sector than in the public sector

Out of scope we sought or not a job

Regards

AndrewN · Answer

First off, thank you for the kind words. Perhaps because I analyze these questions and discuss them for a living, this one just clicked right away. Since it comes "from the GRE world," do you know the source? I could see the straight-arrow logic in the passage and answer choices, a step above what I typically observe in questions from third parties. Finally, I think people twist themselves into knots because it is easy to do so, to fall victim to associative or could-be-true reasoning. It takes hard work and practice to really get to the bottom of many of the more challenging questions, but the brilliance of the questions lies in their simple design.

Nice, straightforward analysis, by the way. It is good for readers to see how two different experts or top contributors arrive at the same conclusion.

- Andrew

Carcass · Answer

The question is located at this link https://greprepclub.com/forum/figures-i ... tml#p36941

It is part of the Big Book for the GRE. The first OG was, at the time, when ETS stepped in and created the exam. BTW, ETS was the owner of the GMAT BEFORE the GMAC bought it from ETS.

Maybe a novice does not know that. I, instead, am too old and testimony of the ancient

This question is perhaps 25 years old. It is like a good bottle of wine though

Figures issued by the government of a certain country show that in 198

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Figures issued by the government of a certain country show that in 198

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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