Overland Park ? Sprint Corp.’s wireless division will lay off about 1,600 workers — including 660 in the Kansas City area, company officials announced on Thursday.

The layoffs, which represent about 6 percent of the division’s work force, are accompanied by the release of about 500 contractors, a company official said.

The layoffs began Thursday and were to continue through the end of the year. They are part of the company’s efforts to reorganize by trimming management and reprioritizing products and services to cut costs at Sprint PCS, based in Overland Park, Kan., the company said.

Most of the affected employees work in marketing, information technology, network operations and finance, according to the company.

Sprint officials said they did not have information available about how many affected employees are from the Lawrence area.

Cheryl White, a manager with the Lawrence Workforce Center, said she also was unaware of how many Sprint PCS employees live in Lawrence. But she is expecting the layoffs to have an affect on the center, 2540 Iowa.

“I’m sure we’ll see an increase in traffic,” White said.

She also said the job market for white collar workers in the area isn’t necessarily strong at the moment.

“I’d say in the professional and managerial fields it is a pretty competitive job market,” White said. “There already are a lot of professional and managerial people out there looking.”

For more on this story, pick up a copy of Friday’s Journal-World.