Public Information Office CB01-164 301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax) 301-457-1037 (TDD) e-mail: pio@census.gov Benjamin Shelak 800-242-4523 Radio Soundbites Retirement Assets of State and Local Government Employees At Record High, Census Bureau Reports Investment holdings of state and local government employee retirement systems reached a record high of $2.2 trillion in 2000, up $263 billion over 1999, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau reported today. It was the first time that assets of the state and local government retirement systems passed the $2 trillion mark. More than $1.6 trillion of the total was invested in nongovernmental securities: - $788 billion in corporate stocks - $343 billion in corporate bonds - $286 billion in foreign and international securities - $186 billion in mortgages and other securities - $174 billion in real property and other investments - $121 billion in cash and deposits Of the $271 billion invested in government securities, the federal government vested the largest share, $267 billion. "There were 2,208 public employee retirement systems in the United States in 2000," said Census Bureau analyst Ben Shelak. "In some states, state and local government employees are consolidated in a small number of statewide systems. In others, there are a large number of systems, many of them serving employees of individual local governments." Illinois, with 377, and Pennsylvania, with 360, had the most employee retirement systems. Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan and Minnesota all had 100 or more systems; in 21 states there were fewer than 10 systems. Hawaii and Maine each had only one, which served all state and local government employees in those states. The Internet tables are from the 2000 State and Local Government Employee Retirement Systems Survey, with summary data for the nation and each state. They cover fiscal year 1999-2000. The data are not subject to sampling variability, but are subject to response and processing errors and errors of nonresponse.
available free from Adobe.
