(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:

(a) The demographic groups of unemployment insurance claimants that experience the greatest difficulty finding new employment with wages comparable to their prelayoff earnings;

(b) The demographic groups of unemployment insurance claimants that have the highest rates of failure to find unemployment insurance covered-employment after a layoff;

(c) The demographic, industry, and employment characteristics of the unemployment insurance claimant population most closely associated with the exhaustion of an unemployment claim;

(d) The demographic, industry, and employment characteristics of those locked-out workers who are eligible for unemployment compensation under RCW 50.20.090; and

(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) 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.