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New Report Finds Public Sector Employees Uncertain about Retirement

July 26, 2012

New Report Finds Public Sector Employees Uncertain about Retirement

Source: TIAA-CREF

A new report released today by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence and the TIAA-CREF Institute finds that only 19 percent of full-time public sector workers are very confident in their retirement income prospects, with many expressing concern about the impact of rising health care costs.

The report – the 2012 Retirement Confidence Survey of the State and Local Government Workforce – surveyed more than 1,200 state and local government employees across the nation including public educators, police and firefighters.

The study found that only 16 percent of teachers and 25 percent of police and firefighters are very confident they are saving the right amount for retirement. In addition, a full 57 percent of public sector workers expect to work longer than they would like and 72 percent expect to work for pay after retiring.

"Much has been written about the financial condition of pension plans and plan reform in the public sector, but little has been documented about public sector workers’ confidence, expectations and behavior with respect to retirement planning and saving," said Paul Yakoboski, senior economist with the TIAA-CREF Institute.

In particular, the survey indicates the rising cost of health care is a factor in the tepid expression of overall retirement confidence. Only 22 percent are very confident that they will have enough money to take care of medical expenses during retirement and two-thirds are not confident that Medicare will continue to provide benefits of equal value to those provided today.

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Categories: government and politics, labor, retirement
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