Census Bureau Reports State Retirement Systems Assets Fall $641 Billion in 2009

Latest Report Shows Two Consecutive Years of Loss in InvestmentEarnings

WASHINGTON, April 27, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Thenation's state retirement systems totaled $2.0 trillion in holdingsand assets in 2009, a loss of $641.3 billion (24.0 percent) from$2.7 trillion in 2008, according to new data from the U.S. CensusBureau. This follows a $152.2 billion loss the previous year. (SeeTable 1)

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These large decreases are mostly attributed to a $484.9 billiondecrease in earnings on investments between 2008 and 2009, followinga loss of $439.8 billion the previous year. Retirement systems havesubstantial investments in financial markets and consequentlyearnings are dependent on changes in market performance.

These new data come from the 2009 Annual Survey of Public-Employee Retirement Systems, which reports the annual financialactivity for the nation's 222 state administered public employeeretirement systems, including cash and security investmentsholdings, securities, receipts and payments. Data are shown for thenation and individual states. For the first time, this data set willalso include actuarial liability data, which projects the totalobligation required to cover costs for providing pensions to formerand present employees.

Receipts

In 2009, investment earnings lost $524.0 billion, reflecting atotal receipts decrease of $484.9 billion, the second year of lossesfollowing a decrease of $439.8 billion in 2008. (See Table 2)

Total contributions were $64.8 billion in 2009, with employeecontributions increasing 5.4 percent to $33.3 billion.

Cash and Security Investment Holdings

Among the cash and security holdings for public pensions,government securities fell 17.0 percent in 2009 to $163.9 billionfrom $197.6 billion in 2008. This follows a decline of 12.9 percentin the previous year. Government securities comprised 8.1 percent ofthe total cash and security holdings of all state employeeretirement systems. Other investments (e.g., real property andmiscellaneous investments) decreased 10.5 percent in 2009 to $328.4billion.

Nongovernmental securities (e.g., corporate bonds and stocks,mortgages, funds held in trust, foreign and internationalsecurities, and other securities) were $1.5 trillion in 2009, a 28.8percent decrease from 2008. Nongovernmental securities comprised71.6 percent of total cash and security holdings. Corporate stocksmade up the greatest amount of nongovernmental securities at 45.4percent, totaling $658.8 billion in 2009, a 30.7 percent declinefrom the previous year.

Total federal securities, total corporate bonds and othernongovernmental securities also saw decreases. Gains were reportedin mortgages ($14.1 billion) and funds held in trust ($62.8 billion)in 2009.

Payments

Covered payroll -- payments made to active employees on whichcontributions to a pension plan is based -- increased by 5.1 percentto $563.5 billion in 2009 from $535.9 billion in 2008. Pensionobligations also saw an increase of 4.1 percent. (See Table 6.)

Total payments in 2009 were $161.7 billion, a 2.7 percentincrease from 2008. This increase was because of a 5.9 percentincrease in benefits totaling $151.9 billion. (See Table 3.)

"Census Bureau data is critical in providing a single,consolidated source of information regarding the entire publicpension community," said Keith Brainard, research director for theNational Association of State Retirement Administrators. "Combinedwith other data the Census Bureau provides on state and localgovernment finance, the result is a mosaic of facts and figures thatfosters analysis and insight into this community."

Data are shown for individual retirement systems and foraggregate national and state levels. The structure of retirementsystems varies widely among states. In some jurisdictions, state andlocal government employees are vested in a small number of statewidesystems.

Additional data from the Annual Survey of Public-EmployeeRetirement Systems for fiscal year 2009 is scheduled for release inSummer 2011.

The Internet tables are from the Annual Survey of Public-Employee Retirement Systems for fiscal year 2009. The data in thesetables are from all state-administered public employee retirementsystems and as such are not subject to sampling variability. Thedata are subject to coverage, response and processing errors as wellas errors of nonresponse. For more information on the datalimitations, definitions and methodology, see http://www.census.gov/govs/retire/how_data_collected.html.

For more information on realized and unrealized gains/losses, seeSection 7.2.2, Measurement Issues: Valuation, of the 2006 GovernmentFinance and Employment Classification Manual at http://www.census.gov/govs/classification/.

Detailed tables

Briana Kaya301-763-3030/3762 (fax)email: pio@census.govPublicInformation Office, 301-763-1225

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau