It sounds like a joke in this economy, but it’s true. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, U.S. workers are more confident about having enough savings for retirement even after the percentage of savers declined.

It states that the 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey finds that the “record low confidence levels measured during the past two years of economic decline appear to have bottomed out.

The percentage of workers very confident about having enough money for comfortable retirement has stabilized at 16%,” which is compared to the 20-year low of 13% measured in 2009.

This is odd if you take into account the fact that the survey finds that more respondents’ retirement preparations are still eroding, more have no savings at all and are clueless about savings goals, and more Americans are expected to work longer.

Could all this confidence in retirement savings be the cause of extreme denial or, possibly, just arrogant naivety?

In other retirement savings news, the United States Department of Labor proposed a new rule that aims to protect and increase retirement savings.

As The New York Times reported:

“These rules will strengthen America’s private retirement system by ensuring workers get good, objective information,” Seth Harris, deputy labor secretary, said in a statement. “When that happens, workers make the kind of decisions that are good for their families and the nation as the whole.”

Could the proposed rule and the confidence level be related?