Labour market statistics on businesses

The Council and the Parliament have reached a provisional agreement, pending approval by EU member states’ permanent representatives, on a new law that aims to improve collection of labour market statistics on businesses at EU level.

In particular, the new rules will ensure that these statistics are more up-to-date and comparable across countries. They also provide for better coverage of the economy, and ensure that data is collected on the gender pay gap.

EU lawmakers need access to timely, reliable, and comparable labour market statistics on businesses (LMB statistics) in order to effectively design, implement, evaluate and coordinate a wide range of EU policies, for example in areas such as coordination of economic and employment policies, social policy, and equal pay for men and women. LMB statisticsare used to monitor the Sustainable Development Goals, the European employment strategy, the European Pillar of Social Rights, and the European Semester.

The new rules agreed today update the existing legislation to improve comparability of LMB statistics and increase coverage of the economy. The regulation also ensures that data will be collected on the annual unadjusted gender pay gap, in line with the new pay transparency rules.

Next steps

The provisional agreement reached between the Council and the Parliament today now needs to be approved by member states’ permanent representatives. Following legal checks, it will then enter into force once it has been adopted by both co-legislators.

Background

The term “labour market statistics on businesses” (LMB) refers to official statistics on the functioning of businesses in relation to labour markets, particularly as regards labour costs, earnings (including the gender pay gap), and statistics on job vacancies.

The Commission’s proposal for a regulation on EU labour market statistics on businesses was adopted on 28 July 2023. It covers statistics on earnings, labour costs, the gender pay gap and job vacancies in the EU, which the European Statistical System (Eurostat) publishes regularly.