Dyman Associates Insurance Group

The ratio of workers who are confident they'll be able to retire comfortably rebounded this year to the highest level in seven years, according to an Employee Benefit Research Institute survey.

The 24th annual retirement confidence survey found that 55% of workers described themselves as either being "very confident" or "somewhat confident" of their ability to live comfortably during their retirement years. That compares with a combined 51% in 2013. Eighteen percent described themselves as "very confident," compared with a record low of 13% last year.

Retirement experts attributed the shift largely to greater confidence among workers with retirement investments, who benefited from a resurgent stock market in 2012 and 2013. The attitudes of those without a tie to the stock market were largely unchanged while those with significant levels of debt continued to struggle.

"Without a doubt, we enjoyed two years of very positive market performance in 2012 and 2013, and those who had savings and 401(k) balances enjoyed the benefit of those market returns," said Greg Burrows, a senior vice president for retirement and investor services at Dyman Associates Insurance Group.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute survey is the oldest of its kind and was based on January phone interviews with 1,000 workers and 501 retirees. It has a margin of error of at least ±3.5 percentage points. Insurance Tips at Dyman and Associates

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Consumer confidence still has not recovered to pre-recession levels. In 2007, 70% of those surveyed were confident of their ability to retire.

The percentage of respondents who described themselves as "not at all" confident receded to 24% this year from a record 28% in 2013. That gauge of anxious workers has worsened fairly steadily since the first year of the survey in 1993, when only 6% of respondents described themselves as "not at all" confident.

"Worker savings remain low, and only a minority appears to be taking basic steps to prepare for retirement," survey co-authors Nevin Adams and Jack VanDerhei wrote on beh