Question

At Westford Consulting, the head of human resources examined how the number of employees with health care benefits varied in response to policy changes.
Employees with health care benefits
Year Employees
2016 32
2017 9
2018 96
2019 85
2020 42
According to the table, what was the rate of change between 2018 and 2020?
employees per year

Answer 1

To calculate the rate of change in the number of employees with health care benefits between 2018 and 2020, we can use the following formula for rate of change:

\[
\text{Rate of Change} = \frac{\text{Final Value} - \text{Initial Value}}{\text{Number of Years}}
\]

In this case, the final value in 2020 is 42 employees, and the initial value in 2018 is 96 employees.

Plug in the values:

\[
\text{Rate of Change} = \frac{42 - 96}{2020 - 2018}
\]

Calculate the difference in employees:

\[
42 - 96 = -54
\]

Calculate the difference in years:

\[
2020 - 2018 = 2
\]

Now, substitute these values back into the formula:

\[
\text{Rate of Change} = \frac{-54}{2} = -27
\]

Therefore, the rate of change between 2018 and 2020 is \(-27\) employees per year. This indicates a decrease of 27 employees with health care benefits per year during that period.