The employees of a certain department of Company X currently

Question

The employees of a certain department of Company X currently constitute 22 percent of the employees of the company. If the company were to expand the department by adding 2 employees new to the company for every current employee of the department, the percent of the employees of Company X who would then be in this department would be closest to

A. 40%
B. 44%
C. 46%
D. 52%
E. 66%

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gmatophobia · Accepted Answer

The employees of a certain department of company X constitute 22 percent of the employees of the company.

Assume

The number of employees that the company has =  100  
 The number of employees that the department has =  22 {	ext{% of }}100 = 22

If the company were to expand the department by adding 2 employees new to the company for every current employee of the department

Number of new employees =  2*22 = 44  
 The number of employees that the department has after the addition of 44 new employees=  22 + 44 = 66  
 The number of employees that the company has after the addition of 44 new employees =  144

the percent of the employees of Company X who would be in this department would be closest to

Required precentage  = \frac{66}{144} * 100 = \frac{33}{72}*100 = \frac{33}{36}*50

The answer is roughtly 46% (previously mistakenly rounded up to over 50%) but you have to be careful in situations when answer choices are close enough

Option C

KarishmaB · Answer

Of 100 employees in company X, 22 belong to the department. If for every 1 employee of the department, 2 are added, for 22 employees 44 are added.

Hence, in the department we now have 66 employees while total number of employees becomes 144.

Required Percentage =  \frac{66}{144} = \frac{11}{24}

This is less than 50% because 12/24 would be 50%. It is also more than 44% because 11/25 would be 44/100. The only possible option is 46%.

Answer (C)

Click here to check out  my video on Estimations

Anki111 · Answer

How can it be slightly more than 50? It is coming close to 46. The answer is 52. 
I can not understand how is this possible ? 33/36 is less than 1. Options are so close to each other as well

jarn · Answer

Confused on this one...

If we use 100 employees to start
X = Dept
C = Company

X=22
C = 100

If we add 2 new employees for every employee in Dept X, we would add 44 new employees

(22+44) / (100+44) * 100 = Percent of Employees in Company in Dept X

66/144 = .4583333 * 100 = 46%?

Normally i would agree with the estimation of 33/36 roughly equal to 1, but here the answers are too close to make that assumption no?

ProfessorXray · Answer

I just had this question in my mock exam today and the correct answer is indeed answer C: 46%

Once I reached 66/144 I looked for the GCF (66,144), which is 6.

66/144 = 11/24 and that equals to 44/96.
From this fraction, I know that the answer is less than 50% and also that it is more than 44% as 44/96>44/100.

The only possible answer for 44%<x<50% is C: 46%.

Regor60 · Answer

33/72 = 11/24.

11/24 is 1/24 less than 12/24 or 50%.

1/24 or 4/96 is real close to 4/100, so it must be:

50%-4% = 46%

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Kinshook · Answer

@joaoalencar023Given: The employees of a certain department of Company X currently constitute 22 percent of the employees of the company.
Asked: If the company were to expand the department by adding 2 employees new to the company for every current employee of the department, the percent of the employees of Company X who would then be in this department would be closest to
Let the total employees of the company be x.
Employees in the department = 22%x = .22x

Employees to be added to the department = 2*.22x = .44x
Employees in the department = .22x + .44x = .66x
Total employees = x + .44x = 1.44x

The percent of the employees of Company X who would then be in the department = .66x/1.44x = 46%

IMO C

egmat · Answer

This is a classic percentage change problem that can trip you up if you're not careful about tracking all the moving parts. Let me walk you through how to think about this systematically.

The Key Insight

Here's what you need to see first: when the problem says "adding 2 employees new to the company for every current employee of the department," those new employees increase both the department size AND the total company size. This is crucial - both our numerator and denominator are changing!

Let's Set Up Smart Numbers

Since the department currently makes up 22% of the company, let's make our lives easier with concrete numbers:
- Current department employees = 22
- Current total company employees = 100

Notice how this gives us exactly  \frac{22}{100} = 22\%  - perfect!

Calculate the Expansion

Now, here's where we need to be careful. The company adds 2 new employees for  every  current department employee:
- New employees added =  2 	imes 22 = 44 
- Department after expansion =  22 + 44 = 66  employees

Since these 44 employees are "new to the company," the total company size also increases:
- Company after expansion =  100 + 44 = 144  employees

Find the New Percentage

After the expansion:
 \frac{66}{144} = 0.458... = 45.8\%

Looking at our answer choices, 45.8% is closest to  46% , which is answer choice C.

Think about it - the department roughly tripled (from 22 to 66) while the company grew by less than 50% (from 100 to 144), so it makes sense that the department's percentage would jump significantly from 22% to about 46%.

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Want to master this question type systematically? You can check out the  step-by-step solution on Neuron by e-GMAT  to learn the complete framework, alternative approaches, and common variations of percentage change problems. You can also explore other GMAT official questions with detailed solutions on Neuron for structured practice  here .

ahaim · Answer

How could you understand from the question that the new employees were added to the department? Because I did: 22/144

egmat · Answer

ahaim  Because the problem says "expand  the department ," it means the new employees are being added  TO that department . They're not just joining the company in general - they're specifically joining this department.

If it said "expand the  company " without mentioning the department, then you'd be right to keep the department at  22 .

The employees of a certain department of Company X currently

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The employees of a certain department of Company X currently

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