Cash and security of the nation’s 100 largest public employee pension systems climbed 12.5 last year, fueled by an 18.1 percent gain in stock holdings, according to the Census Bureau.

At the end of last year, their assets totaled $3.06 trillion with stocks accounting for 35.1 percent ($1.12 trillion).of the total.

While the portfolios of corporate stocks climbed significantly during 2013, the value of corporate bonds in their holdings dipped 1.4 percent to $337 billion.

International securities stood at 20.9 percent of the total portfolios of the nation’s largest public pension plans at the end of the year, with a 14.2 percent increase over 2012 to $665.9 billion.

Percentage increases in government contributions to the plans outpaced employee contributions more than four-fold for the final quarter of the year. Government contributions rose to $27.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013, a 4.4 percent hike over the third quarter in 2012 while employee contributions nudged up slightly to $10.4 billion, an eight-tenths of one percent increase.

For the fourth quarter, government contributions comprised 72.7 percent of total contributions with and employee contributions making up the remainder.