Question: A company has been forced to reduce its number of employees. Today the company has 38% fewer…

A company has been forced to reduce its number of employees. Today the company has 38% fewer employees than it did a year ago. If there are currently 279 employees, how many employees did the company have a year ago?

Solution

The problem states that a company has reduced its number of employees by 38% and now has 279 employees. We need to find out how many employees the company had a year ago. Let \( x \) be the number of employees the company had a year ago. The company now has 38% fewer employees: \[ x - 0.38x = 279 \] Simplify the equation: \[ 0.62x = 279 \] Solve for \( x \) by dividing both sides by 0.62: \[ x = \frac{279}{0.62} \] Calculate the value: \[ x = 450 \] So, the company had 450 employees a year ago.