At the Auric Company, the cost of the personnel department has always been charged to production departments based upon number of employees. Recently, opinions gathered from the department managers indicate that the number of new hires might be a better predictor of personnel costs. Total personnel department costs are $287,500. Department B 100 c 70 280 225 Number of employees Number of new 25 hires 13 12 Which cost estimation method is being used by Auric Company? the marginal costing method the account analysis method the simple regression method the conference method