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U.S. Retirement Assets
Grew Substantially in Last 10 Years, But Face a Challenging 2008
Although recent market downturns are holding
back asset growth, U.S. retirement plans have nearly doubled in value since
1997, research by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a leading global consulting firm,
has found. The
2008 Global Pensions Asset Study found that assets in U.S. pension
funds, 401(k)s, individual retirement accounts and other retirement savings
vehicles have increased from $7.9 trillion in 1997 to $15 trillion in 2007.
In the United States, most retirement plan assets (59 percent) are invested
in equities, while less than a quarter (23 percent) are in bonds and 17
percent in alternative assets, which include hedge funds, private equity,
real estate, commodities and infrastructure. While the amount in equities
has remained relatively stable over the last 10 years, the portion in
alternatives has grown (from 9 percent in 1997) and the share in bonds has
declined (from 33 percent in 1997).
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Talent Shortage Emerges
as No. 1 Employer Concern
A shortage of skilled and talented workers has
become the most pressing concern among employers, supplanting the perennial
leading problem - rising cost of health care - according to the 14th annual
Top Five Total Rewards Priorities survey conducted by Deloitte
Consulting LLP and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit
Specialists. Nearly three-quarters of the 413 human resources professionals
surveyed cited talent as their top concern. Meanwhile, 71 percent identified
cost containment of health care as a top five concern this year, dropping
from 80 percent last year. Other leading issues are the willingness of
employees to pay for an increasing portion of benefit plan coverage and to
manage their own reward budget (58 percent), clear alignment of total
rewards strategy with business strategy and brand (56 percent), and
demonstrating appropriate return on investment for reward expenditures (42
percent). For more information on this issue, attend the MACPA's
Healthcare Conference on April 24.
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Employment Trend:
Intern First, Then Full-Time Hire
Increasingly, employers are looking to their
internship programs to find new employees, according to results of a new
survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).
Results of NACE’s
2008 Experiential Education Survey show that emphasis on hiring from an
intern program is growing. Employers reported that nearly 36 percent of the
new college graduates they hired from the Class of 2007 came from their own
internship programs, up from 30 percent from the Class of 2005. Survey
findings also indicate that interns who become full-time hires are more
likely to stick with the organization than their co-workers who didn’t go
through the program.
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On the Document Management
Bandwagon?
Accounting businesses that want to remain competitive in the future must
acquire an efficient document management system. Acc1st EDRMS is an
accounting-focused suite for imaging, document management, client portal
management and tax workflow in PDF format or their native language.
Cabinet NG's CNG-Safe is a customer-server system that enables small- and
medium-size accounting companies to efficiently oversee expense reports, tax
documents, purchase orders and invoices. To read this
article in its entirety and much more about developments in technology,
access
Technology and Productivity Weekly.
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