Economist: Drastically cutting payroll costs by reducing employees will bolster corporate profits and the national economy. In such a restructuring, the remaining employees must be organized to work more efficiently, which includes increasing their amount of overtime work, rather than hiring new underutilized personnel. The resulting increase in national productivity will then allow those who were made jobless to find work in new positions that will have sprung up with the healthier economy.

Which of the following, if true, casts most doubt on the economist's conclusion above?

A) If employees are made to work longer hours, the additional hours worked will not be as productive as the regular hours these same employees have already worked.

B) Most corporations are already at the minimum numbers of employees needed to effectively maintain their operations.

C) Some economists predict that the national economy will substantially improve in the next two years even without drastic reductions in payroll costs.

D) If corporations reduce the number of employees, the average number of employees per company will decrease.

E) Many of the new positions in a restructured economy would be lower paying than those lost during the restructuring.


I shall post the OA later.