Continued savings by employees and a stronger return on assets has helped U.S. workers begin closing the gap between what they have saved and what they will need in retirement.

Aon Hewitt's "The Real Deal: 2012 Retirement Income Adequacy at Large Companies" found that when factoring in inflation and postretirement health care costs, employees will need 11 times their final pay in retirement resources, such as company-sponsored plans and personal savings.

The report looked at the projected retirement levels of 2.2 million employees at 78 large U.S. companies, which showed that, on average, full-career contributing employees are on track to accumulate 8.8 times their final pay, leaving a shortfall. This is an improvement over 2010, which the shortfall was 2.4 times pay.