Operators spoken to yesterday said they were doing everything in their power to avoid layoffs but redundancies may be necessary in the future if the oversupply of logs in the South continues.
Logging gangs have also been affected and at least five crews are unemployed in the South at present.
Wenita Forest Products Ltd's Rosebank sawmill, just south of Balclutha, has sent up to 15 staff home this week in a move it hopes it can avoid repeating.
Some of the staff from the operation's green mill staff are taking annual leave while others will not be paid for their time off, Wenita chief executive Rodger Hancock said.
"It [the brief layoffs] is part of our rationalisation. We're just matching our production to our sales levels."
The mill employs about 45 staff, who work four 10-hour shifts weekly.
Mr Hancock said some of the green mill workers had been relocated to the plant's dry mill operation this week but the rest of that crew had been sent home.
The move was discussed with staff before being confirmed, he said.
While he hoped this week's cutbacks would not become regular, there was no way of guaranteeing it would not happen again, he said.
"There's just no certainty in the marketplace. This is out of our control."
Half of the timber harvested in Otago goes to export markets which have become "particularly tight right now". The other half supplies the domestic market.
With low demand overseas, fewer trees may be felled and sawmill operators will have to address the staffing issues that result from reduced timber supply.
Wenita was continually monitoring the situation.
The volatility of the market made it extremely hard to accurately forecast what might happen next, Mr Hancock said.
Milton-based Bruce Sawmilling was another operator looking at ways of surviving the downturn, although staff there had been less affected.
The company, owned by Clutha Mayor Juno Hayes, has cut staff hours from 47.5 hours weekly to 40.
The timber industry had always been a tough one to be involved in, Mr Hayes said, but he was determined to see his company and workers through the tough times.
Rising costs, the fluctuating New Zealand dollar, falling demand and other factors, all out of the control of operators, had been hurting many for some time.
"It is challenging, to say the least, and we all have to take it one day at a time, one week at a time," Mr Hayes said.
