The Iowa Workforce Development is in full force helping with Tyson’s announcement of closing at the end of June, and Director Beth Townsend lists a challenge of dealing with such a magnitude of layoffs.

According to a press release, the mobile workforce center was stationed outside of Tyson Foods in Perry last week to answer questions while also providing next steps for employees. Townsend tells Raccoon Valley Radio that a Rapid Response Team is a group that’s been in contact with Tyson in order to navigate through this transition. However, with such a large corporation, Townsend says it brings its own challenges.

“One of the challenges is that of course Tyson is not closing until the end of June, and so they still want to maintain their workforce as much as they can so that they will be able to stay open as long as they had planned to. And their workers are anxious, and they want to know that they are going to find another job past June.”

The City of Perry will be hosting a job fair tomorrow at Hotel Pattee from 3-6pm inviting over 70 businesses to promote vacant positions they’re hoping to fill. Perry Chamber Director Lynsi Pasutti emphasizes that the job fair is directed at Tyson employees but is open to the public.