In the aftermath of Sept. 11, businesses in all fields grew cautious. In some cases that meant reducing employee numbers.

But West Sound Workforce client relations’ manager Nanette Pitkin said they saw a slight rise in the immediate days following the traumatic events.

“We took a certain period of time to get ourselves together just like everybody else but we did sit down to plan for, what if the economy stayed down,” Pitkin said from her Poulsbo office. “January is a time when things start to pick up again usually so we decided we would wait until then to pass judgment on the season.”

The airline and travel industries suffered and many others planned for the worst. It didn’t arrive.

Wayne Sergeant, owner of Express Personnel in Bremerton, said the employment situation wasn’t as bad as he initially feared, though his company did experience a dip.

“Sometimes when people cut back the first to go are temporary workers,” Sergeant said. “Others cut back and then as they realized it wasn’t as bad as they thought it might be they came to us.”

Companies are still “playing their cards pretty close” and are feeling out the future with an increased level of wariness, Sergeant said.

“We’re slower now than we were this time last year,” he said, “but we’re picking up. And we’ve broadened our job availability, so construction jobs are really on the increase.”

West Sound Workforce had a good year financially in 2001.

“We had a tremendous growth in business in the past year – we don’t have a horror story to tell,” Pitkin said.

The one burnout time of the year was shortly after tax season.

“There’s a lot of movement then,” she said. “Accountants, bookkeepers start to look at themselves and say, ‘I want a new challenge.’”

Pitkin said one thing that did hurt was the cancellation of the county job fair. They get many applicants there, she said, which provides them with a greater pool of potential workers.

Going into the summer season, temporary staffing agencies expect business to boom. It usually does during the summer as employees take vacations and seasonal industries hire.

“We had a couple of days of evaluation and contemplation after September 11,” Sergeant said, “but clearly business goes on and people will still need people. … The temporary help industry like the building industry is a real barometer of what is happening locally and nationally.”

(Editor’s Note: Temple A. Stark is a freelance writer living in Port Orchard. He can be reached by e-mail at writer@harbornet.com).