GREENFIELD — While visiting New England Forest Products in Greenfield on Friday, Gov. John Lynch met with two employees who had been unemployed for more than one year before they found jobs through the state’s new Return to Work program.

Just two months ago, Ralph Arnold, 62, of Goffstown and Steve Visceglie, 33, of Jaffrey, were two of the more than 40,000 unemployed people in the state. According to Tara Reardon, commissioner of the Department of Employment Security, each man represented large cross-sections of the state’s struggling unemployed; Visceglie had yet to build a robust resumé and Arnold, despite having more than 30 years of experience, had a highly specialized skill set.

“It was the perfect storm,” said Arnold, a licensed forester, who was not ready to retire when his former job fell victim to the recession. “Whatever investments you had took a nosedive, the value of your house went down. But I knew everybody in my line of work. Any job opportunity would have been replacing one of my best friends. I would have had to wait for one of them to retire or die, and I didn’t want that.”

For both men, the loss of a job meant more than financial hardship. Visceglie, a new father, said the year spent job hunting left him dispirited.

“You start to feel like it’s your fault. You can get down in the dumps and start beating up on yourself,” said Visceglie. “I guess I’m poor at resumé writing. I was sending them out and sending them out and ... nothing.”

“That’s the experience everyone has,” said Lynch. “It’s not just you.”

Lynch said the Return to Work program, the third of a three-part effort to stimulate job growth across the state, had worked for Arnold and Visceglie exactly as planned.

“Every time we can get one person back to work, it’s very significant,” said Lynch when asked whether job creation efforts tend to be focused on population centers like Manchester, Nashua and Concord. “Nobody’s more important than anyone else.”

Administered through the same department as unemployment, the program provides a “six-week job interview” for employers, said Reardon. During that time, the candidate continues to collect unemployment and remains covered by workers’ compensation. The prospective employer gets an opportunity to assess a candidate’s job skills and people skills at no cost, and a potential employee gets a foot in the door.

Although advertisements for the program are included in the unemployment checks mailed to the 25,000 monthly claimants, both Arnold and Visceglie learned about the program from Deb Buxton, co-owner of NEFP. Buxton said she first heard of the program in the newspaper, and approached each of the two men with the idea.

“Steve had asked me, ‘what do I need to do to get this job?’ “ said Buxton. “That kind of initiative was what we liked.”

Buxton said the program was a good way to assure a worker’s fit with an employer who might be hesitant to take a gamble on a new hire. In the case of NEFP, which is one of only two remaining hardwood sawmills in the state, that assurance was particularly important. In recent years, the company has reinvented itself from a primarily wholesale to primarily retail business, according to co-owner Dave Buxton.

“When things were really bleak, there was a point when we thought of cashing in our inventory and receivables and getting out,” Buxton told Lynch. “We made a decision to stick with it.”

By all accounts, the decision was the right one, as a doubled investment in capital resources has led to increased stability for the company. Still, the Buxtons are keen to avoid a gamble whenever possible, making the opportunity to thoroughly vet new employees very appealing. When she begins looking through the stack of resumés for upcoming positions, Buxton said she expects to use the program again.

Since April, 19 people across the state have been hired through the program, according to Reardon, who said she expects that number to grow significantly as the word gets out. There are a few minor limits to eligibility, mostly having to do with dangerous workplaces, but Reardon said she would be happy if every unemployed person in the state inquired about Return to Work.

“There were 25,000 claimants this month, down from a peak of 35,000 in March, and we don’t always get to talk to each of them,” said Reardon. “With Return to Work, you get to talk to people, and employees get to see things you can’t put on a resume.”

During the trial period, Reardon said employers can see things that don’t even come through in a job interview. It is because the traditional hiring process can yield unpredictable results that many employers are not taking any chances, particularly with applicants in Arnold’s age group.

“It may be true that there’s some age discrimination out there,” said Reardon. “And older workers obviously have some wonderful skills. Young people, too.”

While she waits for calls from the unemployed, Reardon encouraged them to volunteer and get involved in their communities.

“The more you’re out connecting with people,” she said, “the better chance you have of finding a job.”