Dutch government targets 25,000 job cuts, with AI savings plans still to come

The Dutch government intends to run its central administration with about 25,000 fewer full-time-equivalent positions under a restructuring targeting €3.5 billion in annual savings from 2035. Announced October 26, the plan combines simpler rules, AI-enabled productivity improvements and other efficiencies. It is not a proposal to replace every affected worker with an AI system.

A crucial part of the AI agenda remains ahead: the cabinet will present its productivity goals and savings plans for the technology in the first quarter of 2027. For now, the announcement sets an overall budget destination and describes changes to how government works, rather than assigning a specific share of the savings to AI.

Less work before fewer workers

The government’s explanation starts with reducing the work itself. State Secretary Eric van der Burg says rules, exceptions and procedures can make problems unnecessarily difficult to solve. Alongside general efficiency measures, the cabinet says it must make strategic choices about which tasks the state will—and will not—perform.

That includes an existing commitment to scrap or simplify at least 500 rules each year. The cabinet is also examining a requirement for ministries to demonstrate that existing rules remain necessary, with rules lapsing if they cannot. New rules will face an additional check on whether they should expire automatically after a period.

Other measures address the administrative machinery around employees, not just the tools on their computers:

• Standardize IT systems, reduce facilities services at ministries and buy more goods and services jointly, with fewer procurement requirements.
• Aim for one workstation per two employees and dispose of surplus buildings, reducing the physical space needed to run the administration.
• Reduce permanent advisory councils and advisory committees, currently numbering 28 and about 150 respectively. The cabinet will set concrete targets this year and also substantially reduce roughly 400 annual policy evaluations.

Service delivery is another part of the redesign. The cabinet wants public bodies to share information more smoothly so people and businesses do not have to resubmit data the government already holds. It plans to develop a legal solution within two years for data sharing specifically intended to enable proactive services.

€900 millionSavings target in 2027

The central-government savings requirement begins at €900 million in 2027.

€3.5 billionAnnual savings from 2035

The target rises to €3.5 billion annually from 2035.

Uneven cuts, unresolved AI gains

The staffing estimate is expressed in full-time equivalents, a measure of staffing capacity rather than necessarily the number of individual employees. The reductions will be spread across several years, and the burden will not fall evenly across government. Police and defense are among the areas exempt from the savings effort.

The plan follows a substantial expansion: Dutch government headcount rose 41% between 2018 and 2025, according to Bloomberg. The government also says it will favor domestic and European AI suppliers, Bloomberg reports, adding a procurement preference to the still-developing technology agenda.

ING chief economist Marieke Blom questioned whether the government can meet its targets, noting that earlier civil-service reductions were followed by renewed hiring. She told Bloomberg that AI could reduce staffing needs but also create new demands—for example, when people use AI agents to bombard government institutions with complaints.

Further decisions will come through several channels. The cabinet promises a multiyear approach to the civil service’s future within six months, incorporating proposals from the Commission on the Future of the Civil Service. The spring budget memorandum will specify how the savings are to be achieved. Those decisions sit alongside the separate early-2027 deadline for AI goals and savings plans.