For the 100 largest public-employee retirement systems in the country, earnings on investments totaled $179.2 billion, showing the largest earnings on investments since the survey began collecting this data item in the third quarter of 1974. Total holdings and investments increased 5.6 percent, from $2.6 trillion last quarter to $2.8 trillion in the first quarter of 2012. There was a year-to-year increase of 0.7 percent from $2.7 trillion in the first quarter of 2011. Total holdings and investments reached the second highest level since the market downturn of 2008.