The nation’s largest financial institution, Citigroup Inc., said yesterday it will eliminate about 17,000 jobs, including nearly 6% of its workforce in New York City, as part of a companywide restructuring to reduce costs and improve profit.

Citigroup also said its plans include shrinking the size of corporate centers,” several of which are in New York. But Citigroup’s chief operating officer, Robert Druskin, said, “We’re not talking about vacating major buildings.”

A Citigroup spokesman confirmed that 1,600 jobs in New York City and another 200 jobs elsewhere in New York state will be eliminated. Most of the New York City jobs are back office positions found in departments such as legal, human resources or finance.

Citigroup is the largest private sector employer in the city.

“Overall the economy is pretty strong so I wouldn’t expect to see any significant effect in the short-term,” a Manhattan economist, Greg Heym, said. “The office market right now is very strong right now.”

Mr. Heym said about 3.7 million people work in New York City so the loss of jobs wouldn’t jolt its financial base.

“In the scope of things, that winds up not being a very big percentage but you hate to see any jobs go,” he said. “I’m sure they’re decent paying jobs.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he received a phone call from Citigroup on Tuesday night in which he was informed about the cuts. He was sorry to hear the company was cutting jobs but called it a “great corporate citizen.”

“I don’t think that when push comes to shove the impact on this city will be anything but long term good,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “Short term, a little bit of pain.”

A company spokesman said Citigroup would continue to hire. The cuts, he said, do not amount to a hiring freeze.

The total cuts amount to about 5 percent of the bank’s 327,000-strong work force.