The Netherlands said on Monday it aims to cut around 20% of government jobs over the next decade, in an efficiency drive it says should lead to €3.5 billion (about $3.9 billion) in savings.

The government said it expected to reduce its workforce by around 25,000 full-time jobs over 10 years. It will present detailed plans in the first quarter of 2027 on how artificial intelligence can help it meet that goal. The announcement follows similar ambitions from previous governments, which were never fully realised.

Why the cut, and why now

The context is a sharp expansion in the civil service. Some 46,500 new Dutch government jobs have been created since 2018, increasing the workforce by about 40%. Against that growth, the planned reduction is a reversal of roughly half the recent expansion, though the government has framed it as a cut of around a fifth of jobs overall.

State Secretary Eric van der Burg, presenting the plan, described the aim as a government that is simpler, smarter and smaller. The savings are expected to build over the decade rather than arrive at once, reaching €3.5 billion a year by 2035 on the government's figures.

What is not yet decided

The government has not yet said which roles artificial intelligence would replace, or how service quality would be protected as headcount falls. Those answers, promised for early 2027, will determine whether this is remembered as an efficiency reform or simply as the latest unmet pledge to shrink the state. Previous attempts to cut the civil service fell short, and unions and opposition parties are likely to test the new plan in detail once the department-by-department figures appear.

Source: Reuters