While temp agencies have noticed slight increases in the need for their services since the start of the war in Iraq, it appears that many companies are reshuffling existing workers to replace employees who have been called to active duty.

Most employment agencies in the eastern and central portions of the state say they haven’t noticed a drastic change.

“We have seen a slight increase because of the number of people just by sheer demographics [of people who have been called up],” Lydia Sy of Manpower’s Bangor branch said this week.

After checking with Manpower offices around the state, Sy said other locations had not seen a measurable increase, which could be attributed to the fact that a Guard base is located in Bangor.

Debbie Moody, general manager of AtWork Personnel Services based in Brooks, observed that the midcoast region had been hit particularly hard.

“I’m not sure if maybe we just noticed it because we’re based here,” she said. But when units from Belfast, Skowhegan and Gardiner were called up in January, she said AtWork definitely noticed an increase in need.

“It’s a bigger hit when a five-man company loses one person,” Moody said. “But it’s no different than the bigger company that loses five or six at a time.”

“It’s a perfect time for [companies] to utilize a temp individual because they don’t know how long employees are going to be gone,” Sy said.

Another reason temp agencies may not have seen the drastic increase in business one might expect is because many National Guard members are college students. More than 150 students from Maine are serving in the war, according to Maj. Peter Rogers.

Of the 76 University of Maine students who receive benefits through the National Guard, 11 have been called up since the fall semester began, Jan Williams of the university’s student records department said.