Survey: government workers delay retirement

State and local government employees, who typically get traditional fully loaded pensions, are delaying retirement, according to a recent survey.

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 retirements 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.

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.”