About five percent of the population in the small eastern Arizona town of Snowflake will be without a job at the beginning of the week.

Catalyst Paper Corp. is closing its paper mill Monday and putting 308 salaried and hourly workers on the unemployment line.

The company announced the closure in July amid bankruptcy proceedings for British Columbia-based Catalyst, which has three larger paper mills in Canada.

With about 5,600 people in Snowflake, the mill’s workforce represents about 5 percent of the town’s population although not all the workers live in the town. Navajo County already has a jobless rate of almost 15 percent.

Snowflake Town Manager Paul Watson tells The Arizona Republic (http://bit.ly/Q0vJeH ) that he remains hopeful the plant will be purchased and reopened next year.

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Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com