Sovereign Bank said yesterday that it would eliminate 1,000 jobs, or 8.3 percent of its work force, including 30 jobs in Rhode Island and 131 in Massachusetts.

Sovereign Bank, the banking unit of Philadelphia-based Sovereign Bancorp Inc., said the job cuts follow an examination of the company’s 2009 budget and are an effort to reduce costs amid the economic downturn. The regional bank, which currently has about 12,000 employees, said jobs will be cut during the remaining weeks of 2008 and into 2009.

The cuts include all types of jobs throughout the company, said Andrew P. Gully, a spokesman for Sovereign.

Sovereign is in the process of being acquired by Banco Santander SA of Spain.

“Over the last several months, we conducted a thorough review of our projected 2009 budget in an effort to reduce our costs and become a more efficient bank,” said Kirk Walters, Sovereign Bancorp chief financial officer and acting chief executive officer, in a statement.

The number of branches will remain the same. Currently, Sovereign has 960 employees in Rhode Island and 3,379 in Massachusetts, Gully said. The bank has 32 branches in Rhode Island and 234 in Massachusetts.

“The decision to reduce our work force was a very difficult one, especially during the holiday season,” said Walters. “There is never a good time to reduce staff, but this step is necessary, particularly during this economic environment. We are working to make the transition from the bank as smooth as possible for all affected team members.”

The decision to cut jobs comes as Sovereign Bancorp is selling the remaining stake in itself to Spanish bank Banco Santander SA. Santander is buying the remaining roughly 75-percent stake it does not already own in Sovereign. The deal, announced in October, originally valued the remaining stake in Sovereign for $1.9 billion, or about $3.81 per share. The sale is expected to close during the first quarter.

Sovereign agreed to the sale to Santander after the bank’s customers pulled $4.2 billion, or 9 percent, in deposits in the weeks leading up to the U.S. government’s $700-billion bank bailout. The lender raised $1.9 billion selling shares and debt in May and replaced chief executive officer Joseph Campanelli in September.

Many banks have been shedding staff as the economy worsens and banks struggle with mounting losses tied to the declining value of assets and rising loan defaults. Large, national banks such as Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. have announced massive job cuts amid the ongoing market turmoil.

By next year, Citigroup expects to have shrunk its work force by 75,000, or 20 percent, since its headcount peaked in late 2007. Bank of America has said it will cut between 30,000 and 35,000 jobs.

Shares of Sovereign Bancorp (SOV:NYSE) closed yesterday at $2.88, up 4 cents.

tbarmann@projo.com