May 23, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Sources of retirement income

The traditional ideal of retirement income is the three-legged stool of Social Security, employer-provided retirement plan, and personal savings.

Income by source for those aged 65 and older, 1998
[Chart data—TXT]

This ideal is not widely achieved, in part because employer-provided plans are not universal and in part because many retirees have little or no income from savings. In fact, earnings from work were slightly higher than income from assets or employer benefits in 1998.

Social Security was the largest source of retirement income, accounting for 37.6 percent of income in 1998 for those aged 65 and older, on average. Earnings accounted for 20.7 percent, income from assets 19.9 percent, and employer benefits 18.7 percent.

Read more about retirement issues in "Changing retirement age: ups and downs," by William J. Wiatrowski, Monthly Labor Review, April 2001. The income data for that Monthly Labor Review article were obtained from the Social Security Administration.

Of interest

Spotlight on Statistics: The Recession of 2007–2009

The most recent recession in the United States began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, though many of the statistics that describe the U.S. economy have yet to return to their pre-recession values. In this Spotlight, we present BLS data that compare the recent recession to previous recessions. Read more »