Workers' retirement-plan participation declines ... drops from 44% in 2000 to 40% in 2006 ...

Workers' retirement-plan participation declines | By Andrea Coombes, MarketWatch | Last Update: 5:31 PM ET Nov 1, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Thanks in part to fewer employers enrolling their workers in traditional pensions, the portion of employees participating in a retirement plan dropped in 2006, the Employee Benefit Research Institute said Thursday.

The decline was steepest -- a drop of 2 percentage points -- among the full-time, full-year workers who are considered most strongly connected to the work force and likeliest to participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, according to the report.
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Looking at all workers, including part-timers, the percentage participating in an employment-based retirement plan decreased to about 40% in 2006, from 41% in 2005, but that drop was largely fueled by the decrease among the full-time group. In 2000, the level topped 44% of all workers, a recent high. ...