It shall be the duty of the director to administer this chapter; and the director shall have power and authority to adopt, amend, or rescind pursuant to chapter 17A such rules, to employ such persons, make such expenditures, require such reports, make such investigations, and take such other action as the director deems necessary or suitable to that end. Not later than the fifteenth day of December of each year, the director shall submit to the governor a report covering the administration and operation of this chapter during the preceding fiscal year and shall make such recommendations for amendments to this chapter as the director deems proper. Such report shall include a balance sheet of the moneys in the fund. Whenever the director believes that a change in contribution or benefits rates will become necessary to protect the solvency of the fund, the director shall promptly so inform the governor and the legislature, and make recommendations with respect thereto.

 Each employer shall post and maintain printed statements of all rules of the department in places readily accessible to individuals in the employer’s service, and shall make available to each such individual at the time the individual becomes unemployed a printed statement of such rules relating to the filing of claims for benefits. Such printed statements shall be supplied by the department to each employer without cost to the employer.

 The director may bond any employee handling moneys or signing checks.

 The director, with the advice and aid of the appropriate bureaus of the department, shall take all appropriate steps to reduce and prevent unemployment; to encourage and assist in the adoption of practical methods of vocational training, retraining, and vocational guidance; to investigate, recommend, advise, and assist in the establishment and operation, by municipalities, counties, school districts, and the state, of reserves for public works to be used in times of business depression and unemployment; to promote the reemployment of unemployed workers throughout the state in every other way that may be feasible; and to these ends to carry on and publish the results of investigations and research studies.

 In the discharge of the duties imposed by this chapter, the chairperson of the appeal board and any duly authorized representative of the department shall have power to administer oaths and affirmations, take depositions, certify to official acts, and issue subpoenas to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of books, papers, correspondence, memoranda, and other records deemed necessary as evidence in connection with a disputed claim or the administration of this chapter.

 In case of contumacy by or refusal to obey a subpoena issued to any person, any court of this state within the jurisdiction of which the inquiry is carried on or within the jurisdiction of which said person guilty of contumacy or refusal to obey is found or resides or transacts business, upon application by the department, or any member or duly authorized representative thereof, shall have jurisdiction to issue to such person an order requiring such person to appear before the department or any member or duly authorized representative thereof to produce evidence if so ordered or to give testimony touching the matter under investigation or in question; any failure to obey such order of the court may be punished by said court as a contempt thereof.

 No person shall be excused from attending and testifying or from producing books, papers, correspondence, memoranda, and other records before the department, or the appeal board, or in obedience to a subpoena in any cause or proceeding provided for in this chapter, on the ground that the testimony or evidence, documentary or otherwise, required of the person may tend to incriminate the person or subject the person to a penalty for forfeiture; but no individual shall be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty of forfeiture for or on account of any transaction, matter, or thing concerning which the individual is compelled, after having claimed privilege against self-incrimination, to testify or produce evidence, documentary or otherwise, except that such individual so testifying shall not be exempt from prosecution and punishment for perjury committed in so testifying.

 The department may destroy or dispose of such original reports or records as have been properly recorded or summarized in the permanent records of the department and are deemed by the director and the state records commission to be no longer necessary to the proper administration of this chapter. Wage records of the individual worker or transcripts therefrom may be destroyed or disposed of, if approved by the state records commission, two years after the expiration of the period covered by such wage records or upon proof of the death of the worker. Such destruction or disposition shall be made only by order of the director in consultation with the state records commission. Any moneys received from the disposition of such records shall be deposited to the credit of the employment security administration fund, subject to rules promulgated by the department.

 Notwithstanding the provisions of section 17A.12 to the contrary, the recording of oral proceedings of a hearing conducted before an administrative law judge pursuant to section 96.6, subsection 3, in which the decision of the administrative law judge is not appealed to the employment appeal board, shall be filed with and maintained by the department for at least two years from the date of decision.

 Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the department shall review all outstanding overpayments of benefit payments annually. The department may determine as uncollectible and purge from its records any remaining unpaid balances of outstanding overpayments which are ten years or older from the date of the overpayment decision.

 The department shall make available for consultation by the public, at each of the department’s offices, a list of current job openings listed with the department, provided that the list shall comply with the confidentiality requirements of subsection 6, or those mandated by the federal government.

 For purposes of contractor registration under chapter 91C, the department shall provide for the issuance of special contractor numbers to contractors for whom employer accounts are not required under this chapter. A contractor who is not in compliance with the requirements of this chapter shall not be issued a special contractor number.

 The department shall include in the amount set off in accordance with section 421.65, for the collection of an overpayment created pursuant to section 96.3, subsection 7, or section 96.16, subsection 4, an additional amount for the reimbursement of setoff costs incurred by the department of revenue.