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When it comes to America's lack of readiness for retirement, certain professions are in even worse shape than others, found the Indexed Annuity Leadership Council in its recently released study, The State of America's Workforce. It found that, overall, less than 47% of all U.S. workers are "somewhat ready" for retirement — having saved 50% to 80% of the money they will need — with 18% stating they are not ready at all (0 to 20% saved). Just a bit over that, 20%, say they are very ready for retirement (80% to 100% saved). But the devil's in the details.
Blue- and gray-collar workers (47.7%) are "not very ready" (20%-50% saved) while white-collar workers (49.1%) were "somewhat ready." The top professions of readiness were engineering (57.6%) and protective services (50.5%). The bottom groups of readiness were personal care workers, such as personal trainers (27.5%), and those in food preparation and serving (28.5%). The next lowest groups were construction and extraction (40.9%) and office and administration support (40.9%).
(Gray-collar workers include skilled technicians and paraprofessionals like administrative workers and clerks, according to the annuity group.)
The study surveyed 2,204 U.S. respondents ages 40 to 70 who worked full time. The goal was to "determine how these Americans are approaching retirement planning and readiness." Kristen Berman, co-founder and principal of the Common Cents Lab at Duke University, collaborated with Jim Poolman, executive director of the IALC, on the study.
