Aetna Steadily Filling 380 New North Carolina Jobs

Feb. 6--HIGH POINT -- Health insurer Aetna is solidifying its status as one of High Point's largest employers through an ongoing expansion that will create at least 380 jobs by the end of the year.

Tonya McLendon, executive director of operations for Aetna's customer-service center on Piedmont Parkway, said hiring has been steady as the company has expanded its footprint to encompass 142,000 square feet of the 220,000-square-foot building it shares with three other businesses.

She said "probably 99.9 percent" of the workers at the campus and those who telecommute are full time.

The employees answer calls, process claims and provide clinical support to clients, and Aetna now expects to add "maybe more" jobs than the announced goal, McLendon said.

Aetna is the city's ninth-largest employer, with 1,350 full-time equivalent employees as of the end of 2019.

The High Point Economic Development Corp. board of directors met at Aetna Wednesday to hear about the expansion and review the agency's newly issued 2019 annual report, called "American City of the Future."

The name highlights the theme of foreign investment in High Point by internationally based companies, which the city was recognized for last year.

EDC President Loren Hill said there was a lot of good economic news to showcase in the report, including $232 million in downtown investment planned or underway, all of which is private except for the city-owned $36.6 million BB&T Point stadium.

There were 47 office or industrial project announcements in High Point last year, up from 31 in 2018 and 18 in 2017.

The report ranks Ralph Lauren Corp. as the city's top employer for 2019, with 2,681 positions, but that's partly due to the company ramping up seasonal hiring in December, Hill said.

Wake Forest Baptist Health, which ranked second in the report at 2,566, is High Point's largest employer most months of the year, he said.

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