Microsoft offers buyouts to 60,000 workers in four countries

Microsoft has extended a voluntary departure option to roughly 60,000 employees in the US, UK, Canada and India. About one-quarter of its workforce is eligible, making this the company’s broadest offer of its kind. An earlier retirement program covered about 9,000 people, and more than 30 percent of those eligible accepted it.

The package generally mirrors Microsoft’s standard severance terms. Compensation depends on tenure, while benefits include faster stock vesting, partially paid health coverage and career support lasting several months. Eligible workers have through December to make their decisions. Even a 5 percent acceptance rate would mean about 3,000 departures.

The offer follows layoffs affecting 4,800 employees, with Xbox and commercial sales experiencing the greatest impact. Microsoft’s workforce stood near 223,000 on June 30th, down 5,000 from 228,000 in 2025—the first annual headcount decline in a decade. CEO Satya Nadella has described a direction involving fewer employees, higher per-worker costs and greater access to computing resources. The company is reducing staffing and operating expenses while trying to preserve spending on AI infrastructure. For Microsoft employees and their families, including households weighing job and benefit changes, December is the key decision point. Rumored layoff rounds in November and January could be influenced by how many workers take the offer.