PrepTest 102, Section 3, Question 3
In a recession, a decrease in consumer spending(84 more words not shown)
The statements above, if true,(10 more words not shown)
- ARecessions are usually(10 more words not shown)
- BGovernmental intervention is(11 more words not shown)
- CEmployees of businesses(19 more words not shown)
- DSometimes recovery from(17 more words not shown)
- EWorkers who lose(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The recession can end before the hiring freeze does.
When customers spend less, businesses may cut staff or close. The people who lose those jobs then struggle to find new ones. Recovery reverses part of that picture: spending rises, business expands, and there is work that additional employees could do.
But needing help and being ready to hire aren't the same. Picture an owner who recently had to lay people off. Sales are finally improving, but the owner worries the improvement won't last and tries to get by with the existing staff. The passage gives us that hesitation: businesspeople delay adding workers because their confidence hasn't recovered along with business activity.
What we’re looking for
For the most-supported conclusion, I'd expect that employment can lag behind the recovery. More spending and more work needn't immediately mean fewer people without jobs. Stay with that timing point; we don't need a complete theory of why recessions begin or how governments should respond.
Working the answers
- A
The passage describes what happens during a recession and why hiring can lag afterward. It doesn't tell us that a loss of business confidence usually causes recessions in the first place. A turns the stated reaction to a recession into an explanation of its origin.
- B
No government action is described as necessary. Perhaps an economy could recover as private spending and business activity increased. We aren't told what would cause that increase, so we cannot insist that governmental intervention is required. Outside economic views can't supply a missing premise here.
- C
We have two sources of job losses: businesses laying off workers and businesses closing. We aren't told how many workers fall into either group. Many businesses could close while layoffs at the remaining businesses still account for most lost jobs. Merely mentioning both processes doesn't establish a majority for one.
- DCorrect
Sometimes the recovery won't promptly reduce the number of jobless people. Business activity can expand and create a need for workers while hesitant employers put off hiring them. That is the delay we predicted. D doesn't claim that unemployment never falls or that every recovery follows an identical schedule.
- E
Finding a new job and finding an equally good job are different things. The passage doesn't compare pay, working conditions, responsibilities, or any other measure of job quality before and after a recession. Even eventual rehiring wouldn't establish that the replacement jobs are equally good.
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