CORRECTED - UPDATE 2-AT&T to cut about 4,600 jobs, take charge

(Corrects last paragraph to clarify SBC bought AT&T and took its name)

NEW YORK, April 18 (Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Friday it would cut its work force by 1.5 percent, about 4,600 jobs, primarily affecting management-level employees, resulting in a first-quarter pre-tax charge of $374 million.

The biggest U.S. telecommunications provider, which has about 310,000 employees, said in a regulatory filing that its head count would stay stable in 2008 as it hires workers to support growth areas, but it did not estimate a year-end count.

AT&T said the job cuts -- affecting its wireline telephone business mostly in the United States in "non-customer-facing areas" -- are part of its efforts to streamline the company.

The job cuts, which are on top of a three-year plan to cut 10,000 jobs announced at the end of last year, come as it faces declining traditional phone sales and rising costs for deploying new, high-speed Internet and video services.

AT&T shares were up 28 cents, or less than 1 percent, at $37.85 in afternoon trade on New York Stock Exchange.

AT&T Spokesman Walt Sharp said the company was in the process of notifying employees affected by the job cuts.

Last month, smaller telecom provider Qwest Communications International Inc (Q.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it was cutting jobs by offering a "voluntary separation program" to less than 2 percent of its workers, or less than about 740 workers. Qwest cited a decline in phone lines.

AT&T said that on a net basis it added about 7,000 employees in 2007; it began the year with a work force of 302,000.

AT&T, which posted a 2007 fourth-quarter profit of $3.1 billion, has gone through a corporate transformation in recent years, as SBC Communications bought AT&T, took its name, and then bought BellSouth. (Reporting by Sinead Carew and Ritsuko Ando; editing by John Wallace)