POST FALLS - Lane Fredericks liked what he saw when he arrived at the Idaho Department of Labor's new building in Post Falls on Monday morning.

"I thought the parking lot would be jammed full," the job seeker from Rathdrum said. "But there were parking spots all over."

More room both inside and out was the biggest difference people noticed between the state's new facility at 600 N. Thornton on the north side of Interstate 90 in Post Falls and the building it leased at 1221 W. Ironwood Drive in Coeur d'Alene that has closed.

"We had 25 people lined up this morning before we opened, so they found us," said JoAnn Edmiston, the office manager. "All systems are up and running and everything seems to be going smoothly."

The name of the new $3 million, 17,600-square-foot location is the Kootenai County Department of Labor to reflect its countywide focus.

Overall, Edmiston believes the move will be a good one because of its central location in the metropolitan area.

"We have actually had more claimants living in the Post Falls area than in Coeur d'Alene," she said.

Also different with the new building is that all the offices are on one floor and the conference room space has more than doubled. The two rooms in Coeur d'Alene held 50 and 15 people vs. 100 and 50 in Post Falls.

There's 145 total parking spaces and there were 95 in Coeur d'Alene.

"Parking was very inconvenient in Coeur d'Alene," said Edmiston said.

Edmiston said the lighting and acoustics are much improved in Post Falls with ceiling panels and new office partitions.

"It's quiet in here, even with this many people, and that wasn't the case over there," she said. "It gives people more privacy because they sometimes have to give out private information."

Hiring agencies will have after-hour access to an interview area, whereas Labor staff had to stay after work in the Coeur d'Alene office in such situations.

Hayden job seeker Judy Rand called the new facility "really nice."

"It doesn't look like the government is hurting," she said as she was using a computer.

The building was paid with funding that was secured about three years ago through a federal government program that pays for state buildings.

The agency employs 48 people who serve between 300 and 600 people per day, depending on the season. Kootenai County's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in September was 10.6 percent.

"It's a very busy office," Edmiston said.

The new phone number to the office is 457-8789. The staff extensions remain the same. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to noon on Friday.