With about 150 workers set to lose their jobs at the Roseburg Forest Products factory in Missoula this month, officials with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry paid a visit this week to try to help them land on their feet.

Roseburg has operated a particleboard plant in the Northside neighborhood for decades, but the company announced the Missoula facility will be shut down permanently on May 22. All workers will be laid off.

To help ease the pain of the mass layoff event, state officials held a "Rapid Response" event over the course of two days at the plant on Wednesday and Thursday.

Roseburg Forest Products in Missoula has operated since 1969 and is located on the Northside east of Reserve Street and south of Interstate 90. It employs about 170 workers.

"Workers generally trickle in and out as they have a moment to step away from their workstations," explained Sam Loveridge, a public information officer for the Department of Labor and Industry. "We typically have Unemployment Insurance give their presentation first and then Job Service Programs staff presents the training assistance options."

A workforce consultant was also on hand to present and explain the services available related to job searching and resume-building.

A representative from the AFL-CIO union was also on hand, as was Montana Labor Commissioner Sarah Swanson.

Roseburg officials did not allow media to be present for the event.

Loveridge said workers also got an overview of jobs available within various Montana state agencies.

"We brought our entire team from the Missoula office," he said. "We have 17 of those (Job Service offices) around the state. We sat down and we discussed what we can do for these folks that are getting laid off."

Loveridge said the state has a job skills matching tool that can match people's backgrounds up with jobs available.

"We also offered to walk them through how to file for Unemployment Insurance," he said. "I think we made a big impact in helping these folks in finding new jobs and 'skilling up' if they need to gain more skills. If they need additional education we can help with that."

Loveridge said workers can get information on everything from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program to upcoming job fairs.

He said the state agency has also sent people to Pyramid Mountain Lumber in Seeley. That mill also shut down permanently recently, although there's hope that a new buyer can be found.

There hasn't been any talk about Roseburg's facility being purchased.

“The decision to permanently close a plant is always difficult," Roseburg’s president and CEO Stuart Gray said in a statement earlier this spring. "It is especially difficult with our Missoula operation as we complete our exit from the particleboard marketplace. Unfortunately, Missoula’s older platform and technology is simply not competitive from a cost structure perspective in a marketplace with many new, modern particleboard facilities."