The ongoing pandemic has been topsy-turvy in more ways than one, but a new retirement confidence survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research shows that a vast majority of retirees are keeping the faith regarding the state of their retirement.
According to the survey, 80% of retirees said they’re confident in their ability to live comfortably throughout retirement. That’s a tad better than the last such survey conducted in March 2020, when 76% expressed that view. It's worth noting that most Americans over 65 years old have received at least one vaccine.
This is the 31st iteration of the Retirement Confidence Survey, which gauges how both retirees and people currently working feel about their retirements. Seventy-two percent of workers who took the survey said they were optimistic about their chances of retiring comfortably. That compares to 69% in last year’s survey.
This year’s survey polled 3,017 Americans—1,510 retirees and 1,507 workers—ages 25 and up. It also included an oversample of Black and Hispanic Americans. Despite the survey's overall robust confidence numbers, the Covid-19 experience during the past year has negatively impacted some folks more than others.
Thirty-nine percent of respondents said their household encountered a negative job or income change since February 2020. According to the survey, half of workers who reported a negative change regarding work expressed somewhat or significantly less confidence in their ability to live comfortably throughout their retirement years.
But the overall picture of retirement resilience is positive partly because the pandemic boosted retiree confidence in Medicare and Social Security—the latter being a significant income source for 60% of retirees, the survey said.
In addition, more than 80% of surveyed workers with access to a workplace retirement savings plan said they’re satisfied with that benefit, and only 30% said they made changes to their plan during the past year.
Furthermore, just 22% of workers said the pandemic’s economic impact has altered when they plan to retire. That includes 17% who said they’ll retire later than originally planned.
According to a press release announcing the survey, researchers at EBRI and Greenwald will do a more in-depth analysis of the differences by race and ethnicity, and will release a separate report on those findings in June.