The company, which announced the closure of its Ettamogah mill earlier this month, has been inundated with interest in re-hiring staff who finish on December 20.

Ettamogah mill general manager Milo Foster confirmed 22 businesses to date had expressed interest in employing staff in maintenance and production roles with 12 to date agreeing to take part in "career and future options expos" the company has arranged onsite for November 8 and 12.

"We're very moved by the fact there has been so much community interest in our employees and it looks like there will be an opportunity for a good number of them to remain employed pretty quickly," he said.

"We know there are a great number of vacancies in the immediate area in technical trades, but we didn't fully appreciate the degree and urgency of the interest that is getting expressed.

"There is definitely a high level of expertise in particular here."

The mill employs 180-plus staff with the plant sold to paper giant Visy which could also be in the market for workers when plans for the site are confirmed.

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The shout out to other businesses to take on Norske Skog workers has also been driven by the Australian Industry Group with regional manager Tim Farrah blown away by the response.

"It's recognition of how highly the mill is thought of," he said.

"For them to stay open and be profitable for as long as they did was remarkable.

"But you can't do that without great co-operation from staff and very well-trained staff.

"It's also a reflection of local businesses finding it tough to find staff in certain fields."

Its peak workforce was about 250 after the mill officially opened in 1981.

Mr Foster confirmed Centrelink and Legal Aid, Albury and Wodonga TAFEs were among the other entities which have agreed to take part in the expos in next month.

He said it would be "business as usual" until December 20, but the demand for its skilled workforce was encouraging.

"There is a lot more interest much more quickly than we would have expected," he said.

"There are people who want to and need to get a job as quickly as possible.

"There are people who are coming up to retirement and people in between who necessarily don't have to find a job quickly.

"But if these opportunities are available they may find themselves back into full-time work a lot more quickly than what they expected on the day of the announcement."