401(k) employees pull back slightly on contributions

While most workers continued to contribute to their 401(k) plans in the first quarter, the average contribution was slightly less than the year-earlier period, according to Fidelity Investments.

A full 97% of 11.3 million participants in 17,500 corporate defined contribution plans continued to make contributions this year, according to an analysis released today by the Boston-based fund firm.

Workers on average contributed $1,700 of their pretax income into workplace savings accounts.

That amount was down slightly from the comparable time last year, when the average contribution was $1,860, Fidelity reported.

Total contributions, which combined the employee and employer match, totaled $2,780 on average, down from $3,080 in the first quarter of 2008.

A full 50% of new contributions to 401(k) plans are investing in equity investments, including domestic, international and company stock, Fidelity reported.

Fully 25% of new contributions are being invested in blended strategies. Of those, most participants selected life cycle options with target-retirement-based allocations.

The remaining 24% were invested in short-term, stable-value or fixed-income investments, the firm said.

Roth 401(k)s have become more popular. As of March 31, 14.7% of the plans offered a Roth 401(k), up from 13.2% at the end of 2008.

The use of auto-enrollment also has increased, to 16% of the plans, covering nearly 50% of the participants in the system.

Fidelity Investments had assets under custody of more than $2.5 trillion, including managed assets of more than $1.2 trillion, as of March 31.