7 in 10 firms hiring over past 12 months: Was yours one of them?
More than seven in 10 companies have added staff in the past year, and more organizations are offering employees a 401(k) plan, according to a recent study. So how’s it going at your place?
Here are a few benchmarks for you to see how your company’s doing in comparison with the participants in the 15th annual Transamerica Retirement Survey.
Seventy-two percent of the employers surveyed said they hired new employees in the last 12 months — only 16% say they’ve had to cut staff.
Almost three-quarters (74%) said they’ve increased salaries in the past year. Just 12% said they instituted salary freezes.
Employers are increasingly offering 401(k) or similar plans to their employees. Between 2007 and 2014, the survey found that the percentage of employers offering a 401(k) or similar plan increased from 72% to 79%. The offering of a plan is highest among large companies of 500 or more employees (98%) and companies of 100 to 499 employees (95%) and lowest among micro companies of 10 to 99 employees (73%).
As you know, during the recession and its aftereffects, many 401(k) plan sponsors were forced to suspend or eliminate their matching contributions. Plan sponsors that offer matching contributions dropped from 80% in 2007 to approximately 70% from 2009 to 2012. In 2014, the survey found that 77 percent of plan sponsors now offer a match, almost as many as in 2007.
It appears that workers are better situated financially these days, as well.
Workers’ total household retirement savings increased between 2007 and 2014. The 2014 estimated median household retirement savings is $63,000, a significant increase from 2007, when the estimated median was just $47,000. Notably, Baby Boomers have saved $127,000 (estimated median) in household retirement accounts compared to $75,000 in 2007.
The survey, conducted by telephone between July 31 and Sept. 17, 2014, involved 751 companies of various sizes.
