The Netherlands plans to slash about 25,000 government jobs during the next decade as part of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven overhaul.
The efficiency drive aims to save €3.5 billion ($5.5 billion) every year by 2035, according to Bloomberg.
The job losses, equivalent to about 16 per cent of the central government workforce, will be implemented over several years, according to a government statement.
Detailed proposals about how AI could improve productivity and reduce government costs are expected to be announced by ministers in early 2027.
The Dutch State Secretary overseeing government efficiency, Eric van der Burg, said the nation faced hard decisions about creating a smaller, more effective public service.
“We cannot keep doing what we have been doing,” he said.
The planned shake-up was announced after the number of central government workers reached a record 160,000 at the end of 2025, an increase of 41 per cent compared with 2018.
The Netherlands police and defence ministries will be exempt from the job cuts. Peter Dejong
Other measures to be rolled out include scrapping about 500 regulations annually, standardising IT systems and cutting advisory bodies.
The defence and police departments will be exempt from the job cuts.
This week tech giant Microsoft announced it is offering voluntary redundancies to 60,000 workers as part of an AI-backed efficiency drive.
The measure is open to employees in the US, Canada, Britain and India.
The company, which releases its quarterly financial results on Wednesday, had approximately 223,000 full-time employees at the end of June.