The Netherlands

The Dutch Government Has a DOGE-Style Plan To Cut 25,000 Jobs. Will It Work?

How the Dutch plan to deliver the savings remains unclear.

Reem Ibrahim | 11.2.2026 8:09 AM

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European countries are feeling the fiscal pressure. Eleven out of the 27 E.U. member states had budget deficits of at least 3 percent of GDP last year, breaching the bloc's maximum threshold. One country says it intends to fix its budgetary woes by slashing government jobs.

Last week, the Netherlands announced a plan to cut 25,000 full-time government jobs over the next decade, reducing its public workforce by about 16 percent. The Dutch hope to cut 900 million euros (more than $1 billion) in central government spending by next year, and 3.5 billion euros (about $3.9 billion) by 2035. The government aims to make these spending reductions through a combination of layoffs, deregulation, and improvements in productivity, including the use of AI.

"We cannot keep doing what we have been doing," announced State Secretary Eric van der Burg. "With too many rules, exceptions, and procedures, we sometimes make it unnecessarily difficult for ourselves to solve problems. Yet residents and businesses should be able to count on a government that does what is........

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