Since the end of the economic recession, a higher percentage of workers are working for employers that offer retirement plans and a greater percentage of them are participating in the plans, according to a new report by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute.
The data in the report are from the U.S. Census Bureau's latest Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) on retirement plan participation, covering December 2011 to March 2012. The full report is published in the August EBRI Notes, "Retirement Plan Participation: Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) Data, 2012."
In 2012, the EBRI report shows, 61 percent of all workers age 16 or older worked for an employer or union that sponsored a pension or retirement plan for its employees. That's up from 59 percent in 2009, but still below the 2003 high of 64 percent.
In addition, workers participating in a retirement plan increased to 46 percent in 2012, up slightly from 2009 (45 percent) but below the level measured in 2003 (48 percent).
The vesting rate (the percentage of workers who say they were entitled to some pension benefit or lump-sum distribution if they left their job) stood at 43 percent in 2012, up from 24 percent in 1979.