Workers’ confidence in their ability to retire has been relatively stable during 2016, and is higher than its 2013 level. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that workers are really preparing all that well for retirement.

According to State Street Global Advisors’ fourth annual global retirement confidence survey, workers’ confidence level, fairly consistent with what it was in 2015, nonetheless isn’t all that encouraging.

Last year, according to the report, there was “a dramatic uptick in retirement savers’ confidence in their retirement readiness, [indicating] that the rise might be ‘defying gravity and, perhaps, reality.’”

Long-term confidence levels in participants’ preparation for retirement edged up marginally—from 2015’s 51 percent to 52 percent this year—among those who said they felt extremely or very confident to meet their retirement goals. However, there’s a gender gap among those confident people, with 59 percent of men expressing their optimism compared with just 47 percent of women.

The majority of respondents say they feel more financially stable; 75 percent said they “rarely or never need to borrow money to make ends meet.”

However, there’s still a substantial portion of workers who are in the opposite position. Fifteen percent said they “don’t feel secure with my employment at my existing firm,” and 15 percent said they “sometimes run low on money to spend on basic necessities.” Fourteen percent said they “have an unmanageable amount of debt compared to income,” and 7 percent said they “often have trouble paying my monthly mortgage or rent.”

And while at least half of the participants said their overall financial situation is “fine,” most also said that they are “moderately” stressed about their finances.

Perhaps that’s to be expected, when workers fared poorly in the category of financial literacy. Of 8 basic financial questions, only about half of U.S. workers got 7–8 answers correct.

Instant Insights /

Are workers fooling themselves about their retirement readiness?

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