According to Watson Wyatt, the average cost of running a pension fund has increased by 50% over the past five years.

ECONOMIST: Workers are sleepwalking towards an impoverished old age

According to Watson Wyatt, an actuarial consultancy, over half of major private-sector employers reviewing their final-salary schemes in the past five years have closed them to new members.

ECONOMIST: Public-sector pensions

Eighteen percent of the 1, 000 big companies with defined benefit plans had, as of last December, frozen at least one of their plans, with the majority of those freezes occurring in 2004 or 2005, according to consultants Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

FORBES: The Big Chill

According to a survey carried out by Watson Wyatt, a consulting firm, three-quarters of American companies have implemented a hiring freeze.

ECONOMIST: Recruitment