12/12/24 (Agence Europe) – On Thursday 12 December, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on new legislation presented in 2023 aimed at improving the collection of statistics relating to the business employment market at EU level. The new rules will ensure that these statistics are more up-to-date and comparable between countries, said the EU Council in a press release. They will also ensure better coverage of the economy and guarantee the collection of data pertaining to the gender pay gap. These statistics are used to monitor the Sustainable Development Goals, the European Employment Strategy, the European pillar of social rights and the ‘European Semester’ budgetary process. The regulation also guarantees that data will be collected on the unadjusted annual pay gap between men and women. (SP)