Other key findings of the study include:

Cumulatively, workers on average saved 10 percent of pay, including 4 percent from employer contributions.
The average employee's total plan balance was $76,020 at the end of 2010, while the median balance was $24,680.
The three largest asset class exposures (equally weighted) were premixed portfolios (33 percent), large U.S. equity (14 percent) and GIC/stable value funds (14 percent).
The average worker's overall exposure to equities rose 0.5 percentage points in 2010, up from 66.9 percent in 2009.
The median rate of return earned by employees in 2010 was 14 percent, down from 24 percent in 2009. The median, annualized, three-year rate of return earned (from 2008-2010) was just 2 percent, illustrating the dramatic impact losses in 2008 had on participant results.
When available, 60 percent of workers invested at least partially in premixed portfolios, mainly driven by the popularity of target-date funds. Among those using premixed portfolios, just under half (46 percent) were fully invested in a single portfolio.
Despite strong market returns in 2009, only 14 percent of employees made any sort of fund transfer in 2010, down from 16 percent in 2009.
Nearly three in ten participants (28 percent) had a loan outstanding at the end of 2010, the highest in the ten years that Aon Hewitt has been tracking loans.
In 2010, 6.9 percent of workers took a withdrawal from their DC plan, close to the record high of 7.1 percent in 2009. Among these, 20 percent were hardship withdrawals.

Instant Insights /

Record participation in DC plans driven by auto-enrollment