Metropolitan areas across the state outpaced Greater Boston in employment growth during 2014, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported Thursday. Barnstable (+3.6%), Leominster-Gardner (+2.7%), New Bedford (+2.5%), Pittsfield (2.5%), and Worcester (+2.2%) all saw higher rates of job creation than the aggregated Boston statistical area (1.9%); the only laggard was Springfield (+1.4%).  

A similar pattern prevailed among the divisions within Greater Boston. While the Boston-Cambridge-Newton core added jobs at a 1.8% rate, matched by Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, employment in the other seven divisions grew faster: Lawrence-Methuen and Lynn-Saugus-Marblehead, 3.3%; Peabody-Salem-Beverly, 2.7%; Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, 2.5%; Haverhill-Newburyport-Amesbury and Taunton-Middlebourough-Norton, 2.3%; and Framingham, 2.1%.

Compared to most other states, Massachusetts added jobs quickly coming out of the Great Recession. The Boston area led the way, along with other tech- and services-heavy east- and west-coast cities. By 2014, however, solid employment growth had taken hold across the country ” and across Massachusetts. 

(These figures, developed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor, reflect revised metropolitan area definitions based on commuting data from the 2010 census.)