August 08, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Retirement and medical care benefits in 2008

Sixty-one percent of private industry employees had access to paid retirement benefits in March 2008, compared with 89 percent of State and local government employees.

Access to retirement benefits and medical care benefits, private industry and State and local government workers, March 2008
[Chart data—TXT]

Medical care benefits were available to 71 percent of private industry workers, compared with 87 percent among government workers.

Virtually all full-time employees in State and local government had access to retirement and medical benefits: 99 and 98 percent, respectively. In private industry, only 71 percent of full-time workers had access to retirement benefits and 85 percent to medical care.

These data are from the BLS National Compensation Survey program. Learn more in "Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2008", (PDF) (HTML) USDL 08-1122.