Census Bureau Issues New Statistics On Public Pension Funds

According to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau, state and local employee retirement systems had a 22.7 percent decrease in cash and investment holdings in 2009 from 2008.

The total amount in 2008 was 3.2 trillion and as of 2009 it was 2.5 trillion dollars.

The Census Bureau’s statistics are from the State and Local Employee Retirement Systems Survey indicate that actual losses neared $633.4 billion in 2009. However, these losses were offset by increases in employee, federal and local contributions by 1.7 percent, 4.5 percent and 10 percent, respectively.