A Compendium of Findings About American Workers: The 16th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey

A Compendium of Findings About American Workers: The 16th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey is a comprehensive research report providing a five-year trend analysis and in-depth perspectives on 50 key indicators of retirement readiness, including access to employer-sponsored retirement benefits, savings rates, planning-related activities, and the changing nature of retirement itself. It also offers demographic segmentation analyses of 20 key indicators of retirement readiness by employer size, generation, gender, household income, and level of education.

 A snapshot of findings:

• Few workers have fully recovered from the Great Recession, and retirement confidence is mixed among workers.
• Workers’ estimated retirement savings needs have increased, yet many are still guessing at what that figure should be.
• Total household retirement savings has increased over the last five years; however, it has remained flat since last year.
• Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials face different retirement realities, with younger workers more frequently expecting 401(k)s, 403(b)s and/or IRAs to be their primary source of retirement income.
• Women are at a greater risk than men of not achieving a financially secure retirement.
• Lower income workers are less likely to be saving for retirement.
• Higher levels of educational attainment lead to increased retirement confidence. 

The report is based on a survey of more than 4,500 workers conducted in 2015.