Savings: U.S. citizens unsure about retirement plans

Amid falling stock prices and shrinking 401(k) retirement accounts, a new poll indicates that a third of the nation’s citizens aren’t sure if they’re going to meet their retirement goals.

A poll of nearly 1,000 people conducted by St. Louis-based Maritz Research found that 31 percent of Americans are feeling uncertain about their retirement plans. Twenty-seven percent say it’s not likely they’ll be able to retire at the age they wanted to (most said they had hoped to retire before they were 65).

Another finding: 26 percent of the people polled said they hadn’t saved anything for retirement, including 45 percent of those with an annual income of $35,000 or less.

Of those who have saved for their retirement, 12 percent have saved less than $5,000, while 10 percent have saved between $5,000 and $9,999. Twelve percent have saved between $10,000 and $24,999, and 11 percent have saved as much as $49,999. Twenty-eight percent have saved between $50,000 and $100,000 or more.

Employment: Economy hasn’t changed companies’ hiring plans

With the economic recovery proceeding slowly, companies’ plans to hire new managers are little changed from a year ago, according to a survey by Management Recruiters International Inc.

The Cleveland, Ohio-based recruiting firm surveyed nearly 1,400 executives across the country and found that more than 42 percent say they’re looking to hire more mid-to-upper level managers, high-level executives and professionals. Also in demand are sales professionals, marketing people and technical workers. That compared to nearly 44 percent a year ago.

However, 49.1 percent said they didn’t plan to increase the number of new hires at all, up from the 45.2 percent last year, while the remaining 8.5 percent of the executives polled said they planned to let people go, compared to 11 percent a year ago.

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