PrepTest 122, Section 4, Question 1
Editorial: Clearly, during the past two years, the(28 more words not shown)
The editorial's reasoning is most(8 more words not shown)
- Apresumes, without providing(16 more words not shown)
- Brelies on data(15 more words not shown)
- Cfails to take(18 more words not shown)
- Dfails to take(20 more words not shown)
- Eignores other economic(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What if people have simply given up looking?
The editorial says unemployment has improved because fewer unemployed people are actively seeking jobs. That could be good news if those people found work. But it could also happen if they stopped applying while remaining unemployed and still wanting jobs. A smaller group of active job seekers isn't automatically a smaller group of people who need work.
What we’re looking for
Imagine an unemployed worker who applies for months without success and finally stops sending applications. The study's count would fall by one, even though that person hasn't become employed. That's the possibility I'd want the flaw answer to identify. We can accept the study's numbers and still question the optimistic conclusion drawn from them.
Working the answers
- A
The editorial doesn't credit the government for the supposed improvement. Its conclusion is simply that the situation has improved. A challenges an explanation of who caused the change that the author never offers.
- B
Both the evidence and the conclusion concern the past two years. The editorial isn't using that period to predict a decades-long trend. The problem isn't that the author looks at two years; it's that the chosen measure could improve without unemployed people finding jobs.
- CCorrect
Workers can leave the actively-looking group without leaving unemployment. If many people still want jobs but have stopped searching, the reported decline would not establish the improvement the editorial claims. This gives us exactly the alternative behind our objection.
- D
We aren't deciding whether the jobs are high paying or whether a government policy creates them. Even low-paying employment would be employment. The author hasn't established that the people missing from the search count found any jobs, which is the more basic problem.
- E
Other parts of the economy could worsen while unemployment improved. For example, prices might rise even as more people found jobs. The editorial doesn't conclude that the whole economy is getting better, so it doesn't need every other economic indicator to improve. We need to challenge what the job-search count shows about unemployment itself.
More Flaw questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Flaw questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.