Netherlands to cut 25,000 civil servant jobs in AI savings push

The Dutch plan stands out for its scale: cutting roughly 15% of the civil service, with some ministries, inspectorates and implementing agencies facing reductions of as much as 60%, while police and defense are exempt. For context, the government compares the effort to the U.S., where the equivalent would be about 150,000 job cuts — around half the number of federal employees who left their jobs in 2025 after Elon Musk's DOGE push. The Netherlands intends to save €3.5 billion ($3.9 billion) a year from 2035, giving it a long runway before the savings are counted. Whether the AI-led drive works, and whether other countries follow suit, is described as potentially tricky.