Economist: If the economy grows stronger, employment will increase, and hence more parents will need to find day care...

Skylar on November 23, 2019

@masonnavarrete, happy to help!

Here we have a Strengthen with Necessary Premise question, so we know that the correct answer choice will make the argument fall apart when negated.

The negation of (B) is "If the economy grows stronger, the number of new day-care workers WILL BE significantly greater than the number of day-care workers who move to better-paying jobs in other fields." This negation makes the argument of the passage fall apart, as it states that day-care workers entering the field will far exceed day-care workers leaving the field. The word "significantly" is important here, as it shows that the number of employees will not just breakeven but increase, which is necessary to account for the increase in demand. This would lead to the conclusion that finding day care would not be more difficult in stronger economic times, which is the opposite of what the passage concludes. So, since (B) makes the given argument fall apart, it is the correct answer.

The negation of (C) is "If the economy grows stronger, the number of workers employed by day-care centers is NOT likely to decrease." Therefore, the number of workers employed by day-care centers can increase or even stay the same. This does not make the argument in the passage fall apart for two reasons. First, the negation of (C) implies that, even if many day-care workers quit to take higher-paying jobs, new employees enter the field to the point that employee numbers are at least the same. However, this could still be consistent with the passage's conclusion that day care is hard to find because, through the employee numbers may be the same, there is a significant increase in demand/children entering day care. Therefore, it could be true that the number of workers stay the same while the increase in children in need of day care makes its harder to find day care. Second, you can make the argument that "day-care workers" are not the same as "workers employed by day-care centers." The former may include childcare specialists, while the latter may include workers such as contractors or electricians who fix the day-care facilities when needed. In this case, (C) would have no effect on the argument given in the passage.

Does that make sense? Please let us know if you have any additional questions and best of luck with your studies!