Premise: The Metropolitan Museum of Art said Thursday that it would lay off more than a quarter of its merchandising staff, eliminating 74 jobs in addition to 53 already cut over the last year. It also warned that the worsening economy would most likely force it to shrink its overall work force by 10 percent ―as many as 250 full- and part-time jobs in all ―before the summer, including some in curatorial and other pivotal departments.
Hypothesis: The museum made a statement on Thursday.