The 100 largest public-employee retirement systems in thecountry saw their largest earnings on investments since the thirdquarter of 1974, according to new statistics released by the U.S.Census Bureau.

Total holdings and investments increased 5.6 percent, from $2.6trillion last quarter to $2.8 trillion in the first quarter of2012. There was a year-to-year increase of 0.7 percent from $2.7trillion in the first quarter of 2011. Total holdings andinvestments reached the second-highest level since the marketdownturn of 2008, the “Summary of the Quarterly Survey of PublicPensions for 2012: Q1” stated.

This year’s survey took into account changes in assetclassification. These changes apply to the categories designated ascorporate stocks, corporate bonds, federal government securities,and other securities. Federally sponsored agency securities are notclassified under federal government securities instead of corporatebonds. Private equity, venture capital, and leveraged buy-outs arenow classified under corporate stocks instead of othersecurities.

The Census Bureau added that because of the asset classificationchanges, caution should be exercised in comparing data from thefirst quarter of 2012 and prior quarters.

Corporate stocks increased 17.6 percent from $822.4 billion inthe first quarter of 2011 to $967.2 billion in the first quarter of2012. Corporate stocks year-to-year were up 5.6 percent from $916.3billion in the first quarter of 2011. Corporate stocks comprisedmore than a third (35.1 percent) of the total cash and securityholdings of major public pension systems for the current quarter.Part of this increase can be attributed to the recent change inasset classification.

Corporate bonds fell to the lowest level since the first quarterof 2006, dropping 6.9 percent from $399.6 billion in the firstquarter of 2011 to $371.9 billion in the first quarter of 2012.Corporate bonds year-to-year decreased 15 percent from $437.3billion in the first quarter 2011. Corporate bonds comprised 13.5percent of the total cash and security holdings of major publicpension systems for the current quarter. Part of the decreasein corporate bonds was due to the change in assetclassification.

The Census Bureau also found that international securitiesreached the highest level since the survey began collecting thisinformation in the third quarter of 2000. There was aquarter-to-quarter increase of 16.3 percent, from $472.8 billion to$550 billion in the first quarter of 2012. International securitiesyear-to-year increased 7.4 percent from $512.3 billion in the firstquarter of 2011. International securities made up 19.9 percent ofthe total cash and security holdings of major public pensionsystems for the current quarter and the recent changes in assetclassification did not affect international securities.

Since the second quarter of 2001, federal government securitiesreached the highest level in over 10 years with aquarter-to-quarter increase of 25 percent, from $178.8 billion to$223.5 billion in the first quarter of 2012. Federal governmentsecurities year-to-year increased 29.8 percent from $172.1 billionin the first quarter of 2011. These securities comprised 8.1percent of the total cash and security holdings of major publicpension systems for the current quarter. Part of the increase wasdue to the recent change in asset classification.

Government contributions reached the highest level since thesurvey began collecting this data in the third quarter of 1974.There was a quarter-to-quarter increase of 12.7 percent, from $21.5billion to $24.2 billion in the first quarter of 2012 and ayear-to-year increase of 14.5 percent from $21.1 billion in thefirst quarter of 2011. Employee contributions quarter-to-quarterincreased 1.5 percent, from $9.2 billion to $9.3 billion in thefirst quarter of 2012. There was a year-to-year increase of 7.9percent from $8.6 billion in the first quarter of 2011. Governmentto employee contributions had a 2.6 to 1 ratio thisquarter—government contributions comprised 72.2 percent andemployee contributions comprised 27.8 percent of totalcontributions. Total payments quarter-to-quarter increased 9.6percent, from $50.2 billion to $55 billion in the first quarter of2012. There was a year-to-year increase of 11.2 percent from $49.5billion in the first quarter of 2011.