The moderate recovery in Boston’s office market fundamentals continued to gain traction during the final quarter of 2010, according to commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).

Leasing activity once again outpaced new space coming onto the market resulting in a fourth consecutive quarter of positive net absorption. Growth was widespread across most submarkets in both the central business district (CBD) and the suburbs. However, growth was modest across the board with no individual submarket achieving more than 100,000 square feet of positive net absorption over the quarter, according to JLL.

As had been the case earlier this year, many large tenants are striking lease agreements now in order to take advantage of cyclically low rental rates and generous landlord concessions, the latter of which began to dissipate during the second half of the year.

Seven lease transactions greater than 100,000 square feet were signed over the quarter, combining for more than 1.2 million square feet of leasing volume. However, five of the transactions were renewals. Additionally, most of these renewals involved some level of contraction, according to JLL.

Looking forward to 2011, office fundamentals should tighten further as the local economy continues to strengthen. Massachusetts economic output grew robustly in 2010, well ahead of the national economy. This was due mostly to a strong recovery in business investment and the fact that the area is less dependent on consumer spending.

Massachusetts will continue to grow faster than the nation over the next two years, which should bode well for the Boston office market. Job growth during this recovery is expected to be much stronger than the expansion between 2004 to 2008. After losing 5.1 percent of our office-using jobs during the recession, Massachusetts is expected to add 81,600 office jobs, a 10.8 percent increase over the next five years, surpassing the level of office jobs we had before the start of the great recession by the end of 2012.