Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane is meeting to discuss 500 jobs hanging in the balance at BlueScope Steel's Port Kembla plant.

The company recently announced it may slash jobs as part of a $200 million savings drive.

But locals are worried about the potential hit to the Illawarra community.

The Minister says he wants a long-term jobs plan for the region.

“Today is not about bringing money to the table or saying that we'll do this or that,” he said.

“We've made no decision as to how any form of assistance to the region may take shape.

“We have to see what is going to make the biggest difference and make sure that whatever we do, we have jobs in the region that are going to be there in 10 and 20 years' time.”

Mr Macfarlane said there were a number of retraining options.

“Through both Centrelink and job placement ... and we have done training packages, for instance, [for] the car industry,” he said.

“But that level of redundancy [forecast at BlueScope], whilst it's significant, is not at the same scale as we're seeing in the car industry.”

The local federal member - Labor’s Stephen Jones - said more was needed.

“We need support around new infrastructure projects, we need support around labour market programs,” he said.

Reports say the University of Wollongong has been invited to today's meeting as well, to provide ideas for the region's jobs of the future.