The corporate trend away from traditional pension plans has become an avalanche, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing a survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mercer Human Resources Consulting.

"Nearly two-thirds of employers that offer traditional pensions have closed their plans to new hires or frozen them for all employees, or plan to do so in the next two years," writes Peter Gosselin.

Jack VanDerhei, a pension specialist at Temple University, tells Gosselin, "This is a watershed event."

Ironically, last year's pension reform law passed by Congress, intended to shore up shaky pension finances, may have spurred their demise, as companies sought to shed costs and uncertainties, the survey found.

Retirement plans such as 401K accounts, the most common replacement from traditional pension plans "are not measuring up," says David M. Certner of AARP. "What you're seeing is the slippage of the middle class."