According to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the nation's state retirement systems lost significant assets — $641.3 billion (24 percent) from 2008 to 2009.
In 2009, state retirement systems had $2 trillion in holdings and assets, down from $2.7 trillion in 2008. This follows a $152.2 billion loss the previous year.
These large decreases are mostly thanks to the financial crisis; a $484.9 billion decrease in earnings on investments between 2008 and 2009 followed a loss of $439.8 billion the previous year. Retirement systems have substantial investments in financial markets and consequently earnings are dependent on changes in market performance.
Recommended For You
These new data come from the 2009 Annual Survey of Public-Employee Retirement Systems, which reports the annual financial activity for the nation's 222 state administered public employee retirement systems, including cash and security investments holdings, securities, receipts, and payments.
In 2009, investment earnings lost $524.0 billion, reflecting a total receipts decrease of $484.9 billion, the second year of losses following a decrease of $439.8 billion in 2008. Total contributions were $64.8 billion in 2009, with employee contributions increasing 5.4 percent to $33.3 billion.
Among the cash and security holdings for public pensions, government securities fell 17 percent in 2009 to $163.9 billion from $197.6 billion in 2008. This follows a decline of 12.9 percent in the previous year. Government securities comprised 8.1 percent of the total cash and security holdings of all state employee retirement systems. Other investments (e.g., real property and miscellaneous investments) decreased 10.5 percent in 2009 to $328.4 billion.
Nongovernmental securities (e.g., corporate bonds and stocks, mortgages, funds held in trust, foreign and international securities, and other securities) were $1.5 trillion in 2009, a 28.8 percent decrease from 2008. Nongovernmental securities comprised 71.6 percent of total cash and security holdings. Corporate stocks made up the greatest amount of nongovernmental securities at 45.4 percent, totaling $658.8 billion in 2009, a 30.7 percent decline from the previous year.
Total federal securities, total corporate bonds and other nongovernmental securities also saw decreases. Gains were reported in mortgages ($14.1 billion) and funds held in trust ($62.8 billion) in 2009.
Covered payroll — payments made to active employees on which contributions to a pension plan is based — increased by 5.1 percent to $563.5 billion in 2009 from $535.9 billion in 2008. Pension obligations also saw an increase of 4.1 percent.
Total payments in 2009 were $161.7 billion, a 2.7 percent increase from 2008. This increase was because of a 5.9 percent increase in benefits totaling $151.9 billion.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
