New research shows that the percentage of workers confident they will have a comfortable retirement is plummeting.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute's 18^th annual retirement confidence survey shows the percentage of workers very confident about having enough money for a comfortable retirement dropped nine points to 18% in the last year.

That's the biggest one-year drop in the history of the survey.

Pretty depressing, huh? Not necessarily, says Temple University's Jack VanDerhei, an EBRI fellow.

"Every time in the past -- at least as long as I've been associated with it -- it's always been all this false optimism. The good news is this year apparently people are starting to get more realistic about what their relative prospects are for retirement income," according to VanDerhei. "The bad news is it doesn't look like they've really started taking steps necessary in many cases to get there."

It's a bitter pill, but it's necessary medicine, he says.

"Without that realization I don't think there is ever going to be the necessary action taken on the part of the employees and/or the employers to get there," he says.

The study also points out that more and more workers are concerned about the impact of health care costs on savings.

Forty-four percent of retirees say they have spent more on health care expenses than expected. More than half -- 54% -- of retirees who quit working early say they did so because of health problems.

VanDerhei is hopeful that the automatic features championed by the recently passed Pension Protection Act will do much to improve the overall retirement confidence picture. Automatic enrollment is insufficient, though very beneficial.

He recommends employers gear up for the next big retirement-related communication hurdle, which will be convincing employees to stomach gradually increasing deferments to their retirement savings plan.