Definition: In this task, you're given a statement and three sentences as choices. Your job is to determine the neutral choice based on your inference from the statement and your commonsense knowledge. The neutral choice is a sentence that neither agrees nor disagrees with the statement. Indicate your answer as '1', '2', or '3', corresponding to the choice number of the selected sentence. If sentence X agrees with sentence Y, one's correctness follows from the other one. If sentence X disagrees with sentence Y, they can not be correct at the same time.
Input: Statement: In spite of this investment, productivity appears to have increased only in response to hiring freezes, or reductions in the average wage and fringe benefit package caused by special circumstances. Choices: 1. Hiring freezes and wage reduction always increase productivity.  2. Hiring freezes and reductions in wage appear to increase productivity. 3. Productivity did not increase in response to the hiring freeze.

1