Answer: B. followed an upward trend before 2000 and then followed a downward trend
Step-by-step explanation:
Before the year 2000, there was an upward trend in the employment to population ratio as more Americans were hired per the population. After the year 2000 however, this has faced a downward trend.
There are several reasons for this. One of them was the shift to Asian economies in the early 2000s causing a lot of American companies to outsource. Then there was the 2008 Great Recession which caused high rates of unemployment. The Corona Pandemic led to more job loss and a lot of people became discouraged and stopped looking for work.