Industry News

On May 6, 2025, the MissionSquare Research Institute released its report, Addressing Retirement Security Concerns of Employees in State and Local Government by Occupation. According to a recent survey of over 1,000 full-time state and local government employees, the majority of respondents believe they lack support for retirement planning.  

The report examines retirement security concerns of various public sector occupational groups including education, public safety, health and human services, among others (i.e., transportation, administration and finance, public works/utilities, and parks and recreation). It focuses on retirement readiness, sources of retirement income, financial planning education and retirement spending strategies. 

Notably, more than 50% of workers indicated that the most significant factor in improving their retirement readiness was higher wages/salary. In addition, other key areas for retirement readiness include:

• Better retirement benefits;
• Enhanced health care benefits in retirement; and
• Access to investments with guaranteed income during retirement (other than pensions).

The primary sources of expected retirement income among most employees across all occupational groups are Social Security benefits, government pensions and personal savings. The survey findings include:

• For Social Security benefits, about 72% of public safety employees expect it to be a source of retirement income as well as 75% of education employees, 78% of health and human services employees, and 82% of employees in the other sectors;
• Government pensions are considered to be a significant retirement income source for 71% of public safety employees, 72% of health and human services employees, and 59% of education employees; and
• Personal savings are expected to be used as an income source during retirement by 78% of public safety employees and 73% in other sectors.

Among all occupational groups, the specific financial planning areas employees want to address include:

• About 60% feel they need more guidance to determine how much they need to adequately save for retirement;
• 54% want help identifying benefits that are most relevant for each career stage; and
• Over 50% feel they need assistance understanding the taxation of employer-sponsored retirement plans.

The report concludes, that “while public sector employees share common retirement security concerns, occupational group differences exist, suggesting the need for tailored financial planning support.”

The report is available here.