By Alex Halverson / The Seattle Times (TNS)
Publication Date: 2026-10-27 16:25:00
Alex Halverson / The Seattle Times (TNS)
Microsoft only expects a fraction of the 60,000 employees who received buyout offers Monday to accept those packages and leave the company.
A spokesperson for the Redmond-based tech giant said the company is anticipating an acceptance rate as low as 3% to 5% — fewer than 3,000 employees — based on comparable offers observed across other firms.
The buyouts, which cover roughly a quarter of the company’s workforce, come as it tries to control its labor costs while avoiding layoffs.
Microsoft’s global workforce totals about 223,000 employees, roughly 52,000 of whom are based at the company’s Redmond headquarters. The company’s head count peaked at 228,000 in 2024.
The company announced Monday morning that eligible employees at the vice president level and below in the U.S., Canada, India and the United Kingdom would receive a “voluntary exit offer” of a standard severance package,…