The CIA is benefiting from the war on terror in at least one department; recruitment. In the 12 months after September 11, 2001, 140,000 people applied for work at the agency. In the year before, only 52,000 applied. And in the year before that, only 26,000. Since the late 1990s, the CIA has been recruiting more aggressively, with some positive results. Showing up a universities for the first time in decades, the CIA got a lot of interest. But the three years recession, plus the September 11, 2001 attacks, have provided enough applicants so that the CIA can be picky and increase the quality of it's staff. Since the late 1970s, when there were a lot of layoffs, standards declined. No one would admit it publicly, but listening to insiders talk shop, it was clear that the deadwood was not being cleared out because of the belief that a better replacement would not always be available.