NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Lucent Technologies reported its eighth straight quarterly net loss Monday, logging lower sales and warning that it would likely slash more jobs by the end of the year.

Yet the world's biggest manufacturer of telecommunications gear's second-quarter loss excluding items was sharply narrower than a year earlier, and it beat Wall Street expectations by slashing expenses amid cutbacks in customer spending.

Lucent said it probably will cut 6,000 more jobs by the end of the year on top of the 23,600 jobs eliminated as of March 31, bringing its total work force down to 50,000. But the company declined to give third-quarter guidance, citing uncertain market conditions.

Lucent is fighting to catch up with competitors in turning out high-speed optical equipment after falling behind in recent years. But it is not alone in seeing lower sales. Nortel Networks (NT: down $0.25 to $3.72, Research, Estimates), Ericsson, Nokia and Alcatel SA all have struggled with lower sales, Credit Lyonnais Securities analyst Gabriel Lowy said.

Shares of Lucent (LU: up $0.23 to $4.52, Research, Estimates), which have been declining since December, headed higher Monday following the earnings report. The stock is down 60 percent from its 52-week high of $11.50 set last May.

The stocks of other equipment makers are also well off their 52-week highs, including Nortel, which is down 78 percent, Cisco Systems (CSCO: down $0.51 to $14.75, Research, Estimates), down 39 percent and Alcatel (ALA: down $0.67 to $12.90, Research, Estimates), whose American Depository Receipts are down 63 percent.

Customers that use equipment made by Lucent and its competitor, such as Qwest Communications (Q: down $0.24 to $6.36, Research, Estimates) and MCI WorldCom (WCOM: down $1.91 to $4.07, Research, Estimates), are continuing to pare spending as they wait for demand to recover.

Lucent posted an operating loss for the latest quarter of $671 million, or 20 cents a share, narrower than its year-earlier loss of $1.4 billion, or 41 cents a share. However, excluding a tax charge, Lucent reported a second-quarter loss of 14 cents a share, which beat analysts' estimates for a loss of 17 cents, according to earnings tracker First Call.

The company's net loss was $495 million, or 16 cents a share, down from a loss of $3.7 billion, or $1.09 a share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $3.52 billion from $5.33 billion. CEO Patricia Russo said it's clear the company needs to lower its breakeven point to below $4 billion in revenue from previous forecasts of $4.25 billion.

Lucent trimmed selling, general and administrative expenses by $336 million to $807 million in the quarter, mainly through lower provisions for bad debts and customer financings.

Research and development spending declined 14 percent to $524 million.

"Conditions in the marketplace have turned out to be more challenging than I think any of us in the industry might have expected six months ago, Russo told analysts during a conference call Monday. "We continue to aggressively work the areas that affect gross margins...As we work toward a lower breakeven point, it is likely we will have to take a restructuring charge."

Russo also said the company still anticipates 35 percent margins by 2003 as it continues to cut costs and sales begin to improve. She cited a new agreement announced separately Monday to exclusively provide Verizon, its largest customer, with a new line of optical equipment, as an important indicator of an expected pickup in sales.

But some analysts remain skeptical.

"In our view it's going to be a real stretch for them to achieve that type of gross margin in a revenue environment we think is at best in a muted recovery," Lowy said. "Right now, they are getting the flow-through benefits of restructuring and cost-cutting, but at some point it's going to be a case of diminishing returns without volume growth which turns into revenue."

Russo noted Lucent has $4.8 billion in cash, thanks in part to the sale of its billing and customer care businesses, which raised about $2 billion, and that the company has no short-term debt. "We have the financial flexibility we need to weather the downturn," she said.

Lucent also said it has met all the financial conditions under its credit facility to complete the long-delayed spinoff of Agere Systems, and that the board of directors approved the distribution of Agere shares to common stockholders on June 1.

Lucent said last July it planned to delay the spinoff of Agere, which makes communications equipment, by six months while it negotiated terms with bankers for financing the move.