Texto adaptado para as questões 41 e 42:

When it comes to what makes us happy at work, job satisfaction surveys have been showing for years that the size of our paycheck is losing ground to intangibles like autonomy, mobility, low stress, flexible hours, job security, health coverage, paid time off and other benefits. Does pay matter? Of course it does. But as China and other emerging markets have gained ground on the U.S. economically, American workers have begun to come to grips with what that means: in many cases, finding a standard of living that is declining relative to other nations and saying bye-bye to generous and automatic pay raises across industries. The recession has only deepened this trend. Workers who are elated to simply have a job aren’t complaining about money, and according to a Randstad survey, they now name job security and benefits among the top factors in their happiness.

(www.time.com TIME in partnership with CNN, May 29, 2009)

The word “trend” in the text most likely means: