1. (1) Each year the employment security department may publish an annual report on the unemployed based on research conducted on the continuous wage and benefit history and other sources that identifies:

   1. (a) The demographic groups of unemployment insurance claimants that experience the greatest difficulty finding new employment with wages comparable to their prelayoff earnings;
   2. (b) The demographic groups of unemployment insurance claimants that have the highest rates of failure to find unemployment insurance covered-employment after a layoff;
   3. (c) The demographic, industry, and employment characteristics of the unemployment insurance claimant population most closely associated with the exhaustion of an unemployment claim;
   4. (d) The demographic, industry, and employment characteristics of those locked-out workers who are eligible for unemployment compensation under RCW 50.20.090; and
   5. (e) The demographic groups which are defined as the "long-term unemployed" for purposes of this chapter. This listing shall be updated each year.
2. (2) The employment security department shall continue to fund the continuing wage and benefit history at a level necessary to produce the annual report described in subsection (1) of this section.

[ 1998 c 245 s 102; 1987 c 284 s 4.]