Access to retirement benefits in March 2003

June 22, 2004

Workers in goods-producing industries are more likely to have access to retirement benefits than are workers in service-providing industries.

[Chart data—TXT]

In March 2003, 70 percent of workers in goods-producing industries had access to retirement benefits, compared with 53 percent of those in service-providing industries.

In addition, workers in medium-sized and large private establishments (those with 100 employees or more) enjoyed a higher rate of access to retirement benefits than did their counterparts in smaller establishments. At the bigger establishments, 75 percent of employees had access to retirement benefits, compared with 42 percent of those in smaller establishments.

These data are from the BLS National Compensation Survey program. Learn more in "National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in Private Industry in the United States, March 2003" (PDF), Summary 04-02.