Question

Because of slumping sales, a small company had to lay off some of its employees. The ratio of total employees to employees laid off is 5 to 1. What is the total number of employees if 22 are laid off?

Answer 1

`x = 1210`

Explanation:

Let's make a proportion:

`5/1` = `x/22` , where 5:1 is the employed to unemployed ratio equals `x`, the unknown total number of employees, and `22` represents the number of employees laid off.

`1 * x = x`
`22 * 55 = 1210`

`x = 1210`

There are a total of 1210 employees.