A company accused of downsizing, defended itself with the following statement "Yes, we were forced to lay off 20% of our workforce last year, but this year we increased our workforce by 20% and we therefore now have the same number of employees as before the layoff." What is the flaw in this argument?

Answer 1

If the company had 1,000 employees and laid off 20%, they laid off 200 people and kept 800.

But increasing 800 by 20% means they hired 160 people.

800 + 160 does not equal 1,000.

Answer 2

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