401(k) Retrospective: A 10-Year Look Back

Following the start of the Great Recession, the past decade has brought a multitude of challenges to American workers, including periods of high rates of unemployment and underemployment, dramatic shifts in home values, volatility in the financial markets, and the double-edged sword of a low interest rate environment that provides for favorable lending rates, but nominal investment returns on savings accounts and other conservative investments.

Long before the Great Recession, retirement experts voiced concerns that American workers are not adequately saving for retirement. In 2012, TCRS published the survey report, Emerging From the Economic Storm: Retirement Plans in the United States, 2007-2012, which provided a five-year progress report and recommendations for strengthening our nation’s retirement system.

Now, in 2018, questions naturally arise about the confidence of among workers who are offered these plans – and how that has or has not changed since the Great Recession. TCRS has prepared this snapshot that compares its 2007 and 2017 survey findings to help answer this question. 

TCRS is continuing to explore this topic and will publish additional materials in the coming weeks.