NEW YORK CITY-First-quarter 2011 data released Tuesday by Cushman & Wakefield shows that leasing activity for US CBDs has reached a six-year high. Despite this promising benchmark, an economist tells GlobeSt.com that the numbers don’t necessarily translate to job creation.

“For residential real estate we’re probably still a year away from this type of lift-off from the bottom,” says Ken Goldstein, an economist with the Conference Board in New York City. “The fact that it’s happening a little bit faster in terms of office space suggests that maybe we’re going to finally come out of the mess in overall real estate by the first half of 2012. I wouldn’t be breaking out the champagne on this.”

In fact, the numbers bear Goldstein’s assertion out, as the national CBD vacancy rate sits at 14.6%, a 0.2 percentage point increase compared to the previous quarter. Of the areas with the lowest national vacancy rates, Midtown South in Manhattan leads the C&W survey, with a vacancy rate of 8%, a slight decrease compared to the previous quarter.

Overall, there was positive absorption in leasing activity for the US office market and a net change in occupied space of 733,161 square feet for Q1 2011. This, despite 2.3 million square feet of new construction that entered the market during the quarter. The new development--in areas like Boston, Houston, and Washington, DC--helped to push the national vacancy rate up the 0.2 percentage points that the quarter saw.

Goldstein, the Conference Board economist, doesn’t think it adds up to jobs. “If we were going great guns, you’d see that number cut in half,” he says. “There would have to be a job improvement that would lead to further narrowing of these vacancy rates. It would have to be jobs, one, and vacancy rates, two.”

If job seekers aren’t rejoicing, landlords are. “With demand rising and availabilities shrinking for quality space, CBDs have begun their shift from tenant to landlord-favored markets,” Maria Sicola, executive managing director and head of Americas research at C&W, says in a release.