LOS ANGELES—The greater Los Angeles area saw a 1.7% increase in employment during the third quarter, compared to last year, according to the 3Q14 office report from Cushman & Wakefield. The report shows that the Los Angeles office market is beginning to gain momentum due to an overall healthy quarter with “significant growth that elevated market fundamentals to an unprecedented level.”

"The office market in Los Angeles has been struggling for a long time while the rest of the U.S picked up," Petra Durnin, managing director of research at Cushman & Wakefield, tells GlobeSt.com. "There were some glimmers of improvement for few quarters but now, along with data that backs up the feeling of improvement, the sentiment from landlords and brokers alike is that the Los Angeles office market is beginning a positive trend. The demand from the TAMI sector is buoying the L.A. market."

At a glance, the office market is performing well. Vacancy rates in the greater Los Angeles area dropped 1.5% year-over-year to 17%, while direct asking rents climbed by 3.5%. For class-A properties, rents averaged $2.89 per square foot, an additional 1.9% increase. Overall, the quarter saw 1.1 million square feet of absorption, the most of any quarter since 2008. Year-over-year absorption is 2.3 million square feet. According to Durnin, this is the most surprising finding in the report. "The level of activity in third quarter was most surprising. Leasing activity and vacancy have been steadily improving, but of the year-to-date 2.3 million square feet of occupancy gains, 1.1 million square feet occurred in just the third quarter, the most for any quarter since the recession," she says.