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Retirement plans are doing a better job of providing a secure retirement for workers than a decade ago, according to a study to be released Tuesday by a nonpartisan research group. Many workers, however, may still come up short.
That news of improved security may seem counterintuitive—or just plain wrong—to workers who saw their retirement accounts shrink during the recent market downturn.
The improvement is thanks largely to a recent increase in automatic employee enrollment in 401(k) retirement plans, says Jack VanDerhei, lead researcher on the report.
"Things are getting better" since the EBRI's first study about retirement risk, published in 2003, Mr. VanDerhei said. "But there is still a very large percentage of households and workers who are likely to be at risk for retirement income" insecurity.
Nearly half—47.2%—of households whose oldest members are age 56 to 62 are at risk of not having enough retirement income to pay for basic expenditures and uninsured health-care costs in retirement, according to the study. That is better than the 59.2% of households who were projected to run short on retirement income in EBRI's 2003 study.
