The slumping economy is causing even state and local government employees, who typically get traditional fully loaded pensions, to hold off on retirement, according to a survey released today.
The slumping economy is causing even state and local government employees, who typically get traditional fully loaded pensions, to hold off on retirement, according to a survey released today.
Forty-nine percent of government managers said that 80% of workers who were eligible to retire in the next five years were rethinking their retirement date, said the Washington-based Center for State and Local Government Excellence.
Of those surveyed, 85% were delaying retirement while only 9% said they were accelerating retirement to avoid changes that would reduce benefits, and about 6% said employees were taking incentives for early retirement.
As of 2005, the most recent data from center, 92% of public-sector workers had defined benefit pensions, and only one-third of private-sector workers had them.
Data released February 2009 from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that 84% of government workers had access to defined benefit pensions in 2008, compared with 22% of private-industry workers.
“I think this shows the economy affects everyone, and it shows the real importance of retirement,” said Amy Mayers, a spokeswoman for the center. “If people with pensions are feeling the economy, it’s even worse for people who don’t have defined benefit pensions.”
The survey was conducted April 9-25, and 460 members of Alexandria, Va.-based International Public Management Association for Human Resources and the Lexington, Ky.-based National Association of State Personnel Executives responded to the e-mailed questionnaire.
