I think there's a bad assumption in this number. Nobody stays in one job anymore. I have 3 IRA's. That makes my average IRA 1/3 of my actual savings. Sure, I can roll them over, but there's no incentive to do so. I'll probably have 6 (and a small pension) by the time I retire. I'm not denying there are a lot of people unprepared for retirement, just saying the $12,000 number may be skewed from reality.
Back to the original post, I read somewhere a couple of months ago that the median amount saved in 401k/IRA is $12,000. That means that a LOT of people have nothing saved for retirement.
Peter