People with a college degree are more likely than others to search for a new job while they are employed....
GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions
People with a college degree are more likely than others to search for a new job while they are employed. There are proportionately more people with college degrees among managers and other professionals than among service and clerical workers. Surprisingly, however, 2009 figures indicate that people employed as managers and other professionals were no more likely than people employed as service and clerical workers to have searched for a new job.
Which of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent paradox?
Passage Analysis:
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| People with a college degree are more likely than others to search for a new job while they are employed. |
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| There are proportionately more people with college degrees among managers and other professionals than among service and clerical workers. |
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| Surprisingly, however, 2009 figures indicate that people employed as managers and other professionals were no more likely than people employed as service and clerical workers to have searched for a new job. |
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Argument Flow:
We start with two facts that should logically connect: college grads job hunt more, and managers have more college grads. This sets up an expectation that managers should job hunt more than service workers. But then we get hit with contradictory evidence showing both groups job hunt at the same rate, creating a puzzle.
Main Conclusion:
There's no main conclusion here - this passage presents a paradox that needs resolving. The surprising finding is that managers and service workers job hunt at equal rates despite managers having way more college graduates.
Logical Structure:
This follows a 'setup + contradiction' structure. The first two premises build logical expectations (college grads job hunt more + managers are mostly college grads = managers should job hunt more), but the final premise contradicts this expected outcome, creating a paradox that demands explanation.
Prethinking:
Question type:
Paradox - We need to find information that explains why the surprising result makes sense, even though it seems to contradict what we'd expect from the given facts.
Precision of Claims
The claims involve specific comparisons between job categories (managers/professionals vs service/clerical), educational backgrounds (college degree vs no degree), and job search behavior rates. The paradox centers on why having more college graduates in management didn't translate to higher job search rates in that group.
Strategy
For paradox questions, we need to find a factor that explains why the expected outcome didn't happen. We're looking for something that would counterbalance the effect of having more college graduates in management roles. Since college grads normally search more, but managers didn't search more despite having more college grads, there must be something about the 2009 situation or the nature of these jobs that offset this advantage.