The recession hurt Americans’ retirement accounts more than anybody knew

After experiencing severe losses during 2008, the retirement accounts of American workers between the ages of 51 and 59 haven’t improved much, according to joint research performed by The Atlantic and The New School for Social Research.

A study of U.S. workers in that age group found the average balance of retirement accounts increased 7 percent between spring 2009 and fall 2011, but 45 percent experienced losses of thousands of dollars.

In 2008, the average loss for workers employed 20 years was close to 25 percent, with the nation’s 401(k)s and IRAs losing close to $2.4 trillion during the last half of the year.

According to The Atlantic, findings suggest 4.3 million out of 18 million workers aged 55 to 64 in 2012 will be poor or near poor by the time they reach 65.

Read more from The Atlantic.