Dutch cabinet plans to cut about 25,000 civil-service jobs by 2035

The cabinet wants the central government to have about 25,000 fewer civil servants.[2] The planned reduction is about 16% of roughly 160,000 full-time civil servants, with 2035 as the target year.[2] Van der Burg said this was the first time he had estimated how many jobs the cuts could affect.[2] The police and armed forces are excluded from the planned reduction.[2] The cabinet’s stated broader aim is to make government simpler, smarter and smaller.[1]

The cabinet has not yet specified how many jobs each department would cut.[2] Agencies including UWV, IND and the Tax Administration are not exempted in advance.[2] The cabinet says agencies could work with fewer staff if rules are simplified or removed.[2] It has also not decided which activities it will do differently, do less of, or stop doing.[2] For public-sector teams, this means the headline workforce target does not yet indicate which services or units will be affected.

The cabinet is looking at efficiency measures that include using AI.[2] It plans to set goals and savings plans for using AI to increase productivity in the first quarter of 2027.[1] The wider drive also includes reducing ministerial facilities and standardizing IT systems.[2] The cabinet aims to save €3.5 billion annually by 2035.[2]

The cabinet plans to reduce the number of advisory bodies, which include 28 advisory councils and about 150 committees.[2] Van der Burg says that cutting these bodies would free up substantial civil-service capacity.[2] The government also says information requests are regularly so broad that it is unclear what information must be provided.[2] Van der Burg noted that previous cabinets had also sought to reduce civil-service numbers, but the workforce had continued to grow.[2] Department-level plans and decisions about which activities to change remain outstanding.[2]