Two new studies have found serious funding issues for both public and private pensions. The studies found that private pension funds were underfunded by about $578 billion, and public sector pension were underfunded by $1 trillion to $3 trillion. While pension funds do not normally hold all of the money necessary to pay benefits to all of their workers, these levels of funding are far lower than would be expected. Experts say that this could impact when workers are able to retire, and for those closer to retirement the obstacles are higher. For younger workers, a shift towards 401(k)s and other plans that put more emphasis on the employee rather than the employer has increased the burden that they will have.
See "Pension funds seriously underfunded, studies find", Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2012