Microsoft Offers Voluntary Buyouts to About 60,000 Employees, a Quarter of Its Workforce

Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to about sixty thousand employees, roughly a quarter of its workforce, in its broadest exit program yet.

Microsoft announced the Voluntary Exit Offer on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. Chief People Officer Amy Coleman introduced it in a note to staff that the company also published on its blog.

The offer is voluntary and time-limited. Nobody is being laid off under it, and eligibility is not the same as departure.

Who is eligible, and on what terms

Eligible employees sit in participating teams in the United States, Canada, India and the United Kingdom. The offer reaches level 70 and below on Microsoft's internal scale.

Level 70 includes general managers and some employees with vice president titles. It does not include corporate vice presidents.

There is no age or tenure requirement this time, and performance is not a factor. The spring retirement program, by contrast, required age plus years of service to reach a minimum threshold.

The package matches Microsoft's standard severance. It includes base pay based on tenure and level, continued stock vesting, healthcare coverage for a fixed period and career transition services.

It does not include the extended healthcare that made the retirement program attractive. Eligible employees received an email with a link to their individual offer details on Monday.

Which teams are in, and which are out

Participation is set team by team. It varies with each business's priorities, customer commitments and workforce needs.

Bloomberg reported that Xbox, Windows, Copilot and finance are fully participating. Bloomberg's sources named data center, sales, marketing, cybersecurity and quantum computing staff among the excluded pools.

Microsoft declined to comment on those specifics. Its sales organization is not participating, and neither are some engineering groups and corporate functions.

How many are expected to take it

Microsoft expects far fewer takers than the spring program drew. A Microsoft spokesperson told the Seattle Times the company expects only three to five percent of those eligible to accept.

That range is based on comparable offers at other firms. It would mean fewer than three thousand departures, against sixty thousand offers.

Employees have until the first week of December to decide. Those who accept will leave on Dec. 31, CNBC reported.

The third workforce move of 2026

In the spring, Microsoft ran its first-ever voluntary retirement program. It was open to about 8,750 U.S. employees at the senior director level and below.

About thirty percent of those eligible took that deal. Microsoft disclosed a $900 million charge for the retirement program in its April earnings report.

In July, the company cut 4,800 jobs, about two percent of its global workforce. It cut hundreds more across the company in September.

Microsoft says the exit offer is not a sign it needs fewer employees. The company also says it is not a replacement for layoffs, which remain possible depending on business conditions.

The offer lands while Microsoft spends heavily on AI data centers. Wall Street is pressing the company to hold down operating expenses as that spending climbs.

What remains unknown

What remains unknown is how many employees will accept, because the decision window runs to the first week of December. Also unknown is the program's cost, which Microsoft has not estimated publicly.

What to watch is Microsoft's fiscal first-quarter results after the close on Wednesday, Oct. 28. The earnings report could include a first projection of the new offer's cost.

The verified record is clear on the shape of the move: Microsoft is asking a quarter of its workforce to consider leaving, while publicly expecting only a small fraction to say yes.