While confidence has risen slightly, just 2 in 10 workers are very confident in having enough money to live comfortably in retirement, according to an Employee Benefit Research Institute survey, which was highlighted at a recent EBRI "2024 Retirement Confidence Survey" Results and Insights" webinar.

"Retirement confidence went down for workers in 2023," said Craig Copeland, director, Wealth benefits research, on the webinar. "We had one of the largest percentage point declines since 2008, 2009 … a lot of that impact was the high inflation during 2022." However, "it's heading in the right direction," he said.

While there are signs that retirement confidence is making a positive recovery, workers still have concerns:

• 83%: Increasing cost of living will make it harder for you to save as much money as you want
• 79%: The U.S. government making significant changes to the American retirement system
• 78%: Inflation will stay high for at least the next 12 months
• 72%: Housing costs will rise
• 71%: The U.S. economy will go into a recession in the next 12 months

For workers, "there are actually different components of retirement confidence," said Lisa Greenwald, CEO, Greenwald Research, which include:

• 76%: Enough money to take care of your basic expenses during retirement
• 68%: Doing a good job of preparing financially for retirement
• 66%: Enough money to take care of medical expenses during retirement
• 62%: Enough money to keep up with the cost of living/inflation
• 62%: Enough money to last entire life

For one-third of workers, saving for retirement is just not a priority relative to their present needs, particularly those impacted by debt. Consistent with last year, nearly half of workers (47%) agree their debt negatively impacts their ability to save for retirement, said Greenwald.