Aetna will cut 625 jobs, and 160 of them will be from the Hartford and Middletown offices.
The cuts equal nearly 2 percent of the company's staff and that will just be the first round. Aetna plans to make similar job cuts in the first quarter of 2010 because of the lagging economy and the potential impact of health care reform, the health insurer says.
Last year, the company cut 977 jobs.
Aetna is in the process of consolidating all of its Aetna employees from Connecticut into the Hartford office.
Aetna Inc. expects to book a $40 million restructuring charge related to the current layoffs. It will disclose the financial impact of future layoffs when those decisions are made.
The Hartford-based company is not leaving any of its markets but it will consolidate field offices to reduce real estate costs.