How will the right answer fit in terms of support and conclusion?

Only the right answer will be a conclusion supported by the passage.

Highlight the main conclusion in the passage, if there is one:

You’re going to supply the conclusion on this one, it’ll be in the right answer. There is no conclusion in the passage.

[BACKGROUND]. [SUPPORT]. But, [SUPPORT], ______.

Map the wording of the answers to the wording of the passage:

(A) highly trained workers have more purchasing power…

The comparison between “highly trained” and “less trained” workers maps nicely to the “But..” statement in the passage. The downfall of this one is that “purchasing power” maps to “previously would not have been able to afford”, which is only about the “less trained” workers. So the passage doesn’t directly support this answer. We’d have to add in our own assumption, and the test tells us explicitly not to do that.

(B) …has decreased benefits for workers…increased the profits…

There’s no mention of “benefits”, which in this context usually means insurance and PTO. And there’s no mention of “profits” either. This one gets no support from the passage.

(C) …even the highest paid employees…

This group of people is never mentioned or referenced in the passage, so no way you can make a conclusion about them. If you read all the way to “never”, you know that’s stronger wording than anything in the passage anyway.

(D) …increased purchasing power…also undermines their job security.

All of this maps. The “source” is the “lower prices”, which get workers stuff “they previously would not have been able to afford”, but also makes them “more vulnerable to elimination”.

(E) The percentage of workers…

The passage does say there are “fewer workers”, and it makes a reference to what they’re “able to afford”. But we don’t actually have any info about how many of them can afford how much, so this answer is making a much more specific conclusion than we have support for in the passage.

(D) is the correct answer.