CONSUMER BRIEFS / ECONOMY

America’s workers are delaying retirement, human-resources executives said in a recent survey.

Consultancy Towers Perrin said 59% of those surveyed said they believed employees were delaying retirement, while 43% said workers were increasing loans and hardship withdrawals from company retirement savings plans. In addition, 38% said fewer employees were participating in defined-contribution plans.

Nearly half said they had closed or soon would close company plans to new participants, and an additional 10% were considering doing so. Only 8% said their companies had suspended matching contributions -- although 19% were considering it.

Towers Perrin polled a random group of 480 HR and benefit executives from its client base in February.