Dutch government job cuts: about 25,000 civil service jobs to go by 2035, with AI one of the levers and a warning not to overestimate it

The Dutch government expects to cut roughly 25,000 full-time civil service jobs by 2035, and wants AI to be one of the ways it gets there, State Secretary Eric van der Burg told parliament in a progress letter dated 26 October 2026. The figure is the ministry's own "rough estimate" of the job reduction needed to meet budget cuts on the central government apparatus that rise to EUR 3.5 billion a year by 2035. About 160,000 FTE work in the ministries, inspectorates and agencies that carry them; police and defence are exempt. AI is one of several levers in the letter, alongside fewer rules, joint purchasing, standardised internal IT and facilities, and fewer advisory bodies. AI initiatives already run in several parts of the civil service, the letter says, and the aim is to apply AI ever more widely, which "requires the fundamental revision of work processes". The cabinet will come with "ambitious targets and savings plans" for AI in the first quarter of 2027. On purchasing, it says the changes mean the government "can work with fewer people". The same letter is cautious about what technology will deliver. One of its lessons from past reorganisations is: "Do not overestimate the staffing effects of digitalisation and AI." Government processes have been digitised and automated over two decades, it says, but the promised savings in cost and staff never came; automation led to new tasks, more capacity and more contractors. Many organisations face cuts of about 20% of staff, rising to 45% or, in one case, about 60% where temporary budgets lapse. Which departments bear the cuts has not been set out.