With the major events affecting the U.S. economy and stock markets, retirement portfolios have seen dips, as well as gains.

Carbon County’s retirement fund is no exception.

On Thursday, the county retirement board heard from Sarah Wilson, vice president of Marquette Associates, the company hired to manager the county’s portfolio, to see how the fund is doing, as well as where she thinks the economy will go in 2023.

Wilson said that while the county saw a decrease in return from the beginning of the year, with a total return of -13.1%, it still outperformed the relative benchmark of -13.8%.

Looking at the year, Carbon County started 2022 with just under $99 million in the retirement fund, but the stock market roller coaster left the fund value as of Dec. 31 at $81,161,713.

Since then, the fund has slowly regained some of the losses.

Mark Sverchek, county controller and secretary to the retirement board, said that as of Feb. 10, the fund was back up to $84,752,645.

“We’re having a nice rebound,” he said.

Wilson noted that 2022 was a tough year for all portfolios, but commended Carbon on diversifying enough to slow the losses.

She pointed out that while the country is not in an official recession, a recent poll shows that 46% of Americans feel we are already in a recession.

Wilson highlighted several economic factors, including unemployment rates at their lowest since 1969; while food costs are up approximately 10% and gas prices are fluctuating.

“It’s going to be a rocky road I think, but we’re ahead a bit, but it’s going to be up and down, volatile,” Wilson said, adding that the county will have to figure out how to continue to maintain growth and minimize losses. “Right now, we’re off to a good start, but we’re going to have to see what the Fed does.

Sverchek said that the pension plan remains well funded, highlighting that approximately $500,000 is disbursed from the fund every month, and still maintains over $80 million.

“You really have to put that in perspective of how the fund has done over the years, even with all the negatives that we see now,” he said.

A bright spot is that interest bearing accounts are now earning over 4%, Sverchek added.

Carbon County hired Marquette as the portfolio manager in 2015 and since then, Sverchek noted, the annual return has been approximately 6.1%. Marquette manages the retirement portfolios for 14 counties in Pennsylvania.