For most Microsoft employees, the maximum unemployment benefits in most states are a rounding error vs the buyout offer. Here in Missouri it's $320, maxed to 20 weeks. So for most local employees that might get this letter, It's less than a month of salary, and that without accounting for months of health benefits, which I bet the buyout includes.
Unemployment in WA where Microsoft is headquartered has quite generous unemployment. Max of $1208 a week up to 26 weeks and based on your previous salary so most certainly ex-Microsoft will be maxing this out.
That works out to $31k. That’s not a lot for a software engineer at Microsoft. Levels.fyi pegs entry level at $170k. So that’s like 2 months of pay.
The buyout offer certainly will exceed the unemployment payout for most.
That's $320/week, to be clear.