Bangalore: After reporting a third-quarter loss of $478 million and 545,000 customers, Sprint plans to lay off between 2,000 and 2,500 people, which is about six percent of its 42,000-strong workforce, by the end of this year. The company expects that the job cuts to reduce its annual expenses by $350 million and it will dole out $60 million to $80 million in severance payments during the fourth quarter, reports TechSpot. These layoffs will affect positions across the entire company, including its wholesale unit and even contractors. When Sprint's current CEO Dan Hesse took over in late 2007, poor service was a common complaint among customers. Support has improved so drastically in the last two years, however, that the company has discontinued using 27 call centers. With this bout of layoffs and the transfer of 6,000 employees to Ericsson, Sprint has reduced its global workforce by around 16,500 in 2009.