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Stormy Economy Dampens Retirement Plans for Many

The on-going recession has most workers feeling gloomy about their retirement plans. In fact, many expect to work longer before retiring, according to the 2009 Annual Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), and most say they plan to supplement their income in retirement by working for pay.

The survey, conducted by the non-partisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), found only 13 percent of workers able to say they are confident about having enough money to live comfortably in retirement, a 50-percent drop from the 27 percent reported in 2007. “By any measure, the two-year results amount to a very significant drop in workers’ and retirees’ confidence in their retirement prospects,” said Jack VanDerhei, research director at EBRI, co-sponsor of the survey with Mathew Greenwald & Associates, a survey research firm.

Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed said that the age at which they expect to retire has changed in the past year. Of those, the vast majority – 89 percent – said that they have postponed retirement with the intension of increasing their financial security. Not surprisingly, the poor economy (36 percent) and the need to make up losses in the stock market (28 percent) were most often cited as reasons for postponing retirement.

Among current retirees, confidence in having a financially secure retirement also dropped to a new low, according to the survey. Only 20 percent of retirees surveyed said they were very confident in having a financially secure retirement, down 41 percent from the survey’s 2007 results.

The proportion of surveyed workers who plan to work after they retire increased to 72 percent, up from 66 percent in 2007. This compares to 34 percent of retirees in the study who reported that they actually worked for pay at some time during their retirement.

Full survey results are available at www.ebri.org.

Among current retirees, confidence in having a financially secure retirement dropped to a new low. Only 20 percent of retirees surveyed said they were very confident in having a financially secure retirement.