What trend did a student in Hawaii notice regarding jobs in computer services from 2010 to 2019?

• A. Computer services jobs declined from 2010 to 2019.
• B. Computer services jobs remained exactly the same across the period.
• C. Computer services jobs in 2010 were higher than those in technical consulting, and in 2019 were about the same as engineering services.
• D. Computer services jobs rose dramatically from 2010 to 2019.

Answer: (C)

The concept being tested is how to read trends and relative sizes of different job sectors over time on a chart. Here, computer services start out stronger than technical consulting in 2010, meaning there were more computer services jobs than technical consulting that year. By 2019, the number of computer services jobs has grown to be about the same as engineering services, showing that computer services rose enough to converge with another sector. This isn’t a simple decline or a flat trend; it’s a shift in the ranking of sectors over time—starting above one sector and ending roughly equal to another. The other options don’t fit because the data don’t show a decline, a perfectly flat trend, or a dramatic jump in computer services alone; they show growth that changes its comparison to at least one other sector.