Sprint posted a third quarter loss of $0.19 a share on revenue of $8.5 billion. Wall Street analysts were looking for a loss of $0.06 on sales of $8.6 billion. Last year, the telecom provider lost $0.46 per share on $8.84 billion in sales.
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A Sprint logo is displayed on a smart phone in Montpelier, Vt.(Photo: Toby Talbot, AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Wireless carrier Sprint (S) says it is eliminating 2,000 jobs, or about 5% of its staff, as part of an effort to cut $1.5 billion in annual spending.

The company said the cuts will be made over the coming weeks and months, and it is still determining how many jobs will be cut from various divisions.

Sprint announced a separate round of job cuts in early October, and did not say how many jobs were eliminated at that time. Sprint said Monday that job cuts would reduce its labor costs by a combined $400 million per year.

Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint is the third-largest cellphone carrier in the U.S., but it has lost billions of dollars in recent years as subscribers canceled contracts and is trying to compete better with AT&T and Verizon. Japan’s Softbank bought a majority stake in Sprint in 2013 and the company has eliminated thousands of jobs since then. It had 38,000 employees at the end of last year.

Sprint is also making changes at the top, in August replacing CEO Dan Hesse with Marcelo Claure, the CEO of cellphone distributor and Softbank unit Brightstar.

That came after Sprint ended its effort to buy competitor T-Mobile US.

The company’s losses haven’t ended. Sprint said Monday that it took a loss of $765 million, or 19 cents per share, in its fiscal second quarter on $8.49 billion in revenue. Zacks Investment Research says analysts expected a loss of 5 cents per share and $8.65 billion in revenue.

Sprint shares slid more than 7% in after-hours trading to $5.74. The stock is down 42% this year after closing up 4.6% Monday at $6.20.

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