Q: I am job hunting and want to find a company that provides a good traditional pension. How can I locate one?

A: My first thought was to list some companies. But the more I considered it, the more I came to think that trying to hook up with a pension just doesn’t make sense anymore.

That’s not the standard view. It’s more common to bemoan the decline of the traditional pension, which offers a set monthly retirement income guaranteed by the employer and insured by the federal government.

In its place, many companies are using 401(k)s and similar plans whose retirement payouts depend on the employee’s investing skill and luck.

Given that the 401(k) is so much riskier, why wouldn’t you jump at a pension-paying job if you could get it?

First, because employers probably will continue phasing out traditional pensions.

Second, working life has changed – many of today’s workers won’t stay with one employer long enough to make the traditional pension pay off.

In a typical pension the retirement benefit is based on a formula that multiplies your peak or final salary by your years of service, and then multiplies the result by a percentage. So a $75,000 income times 40 years times 1.5 percent would produce annual retirement income of $45,000.

That’s fine if you stay for 40 years. And in the heyday of traditional pensions, that’s what many white- and blue-collar people did.

Not anymore. Many manufacturing jobs – where traditional pensions were strongest – are going overseas. And payrolls and benefits are being slashed for many that survive.

Many white-collar jobs now change so fast that young people can figure on working for six or eight employers during their lifetimes.

Imagine, for example, that in your first decade with the company, you made $40,000 a year. Those 10 years would earn you $6,000 a year in pension. But in your final decade, you might earn $75,000 a year. That would give you $11,250 a year – nearly twice as much.

Obviously, reducing the number of years you participate in the plan also hurts. Combining the two factors can be devastating.

Leave the company after 25 years with a final salary of $50,000 and you would get a pension of just $18,750, compared to $45,000 if you stayed 40 years and finished earning $75,000 a year.

Clearly, a traditional pension works best for the employee who is with the company for many years and is still there upon retiring.