DENVER -- Qwest Communications announced Thursday that it will slash 7,000 jobs.

The telephone company also warned that revenue for this year and next will fall short of Wall Street's expectations.

The job cuts come on the heels of 4,000 cuts previously announced in September. When completed by the middle of next year, Qwest will have reduced its work force by 17 percent, from 62,000 to 55,000.

Qwest has about 16,000 employees in Colorado. Anywhere from 1,500 to 1,800 jobs will be cut in this round of layoffs, said Qwest spokesman Steve Hamack.

The cuts will come from all jobs, all areas of the company. They'll do as much as possible through attrition, Hamack said.

"This is being driven by the downturn of the economy. If Qwest sees growth and increase in demand for service, it'll look to rehire. We're not expecting that, but we'll encourage laid off employees to reapply if it would," Hamack told 7NEWS.

In a statement released Thursday, Qwest said that the deteriorating U.S. economy is lowering customer demand.

Qwest also warned that revenue for the fourth quarter will be $4.8 billion. That's far lower than the $5.07 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call.

For the full year, Qwest said revenue would be 19.8 billion dollars, or below expectations of $20.3 billion.

Shares of Qwest were off 28 cents, or two percent, to $11.82 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

To read the Qwest release, click here