SAN JOSE — Cracks have emerged in the Santa Clara County and East Bay job markets as both areas started the year shedding more jobs than they created.

Santa Clara County lost 3,500 jobs while the Alameda County-Contra Costa County area lost 900 jobs in January compared to December, according to seasonally adjusted figures from the Employment Development Department, released Friday. The San Francisco-San Mateo region managed a paltry gain of 400 jobs.

“Silicon Valley’s job engine has downshifted in recent months,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist with San Francisco-based Bank of the West. “That’s a trend we are starting to see across the Bay Area and in California as a whole.”

The Bay Area overall lost 6,800 jobs in January, breaking a string of 66 consecutive months of job gains in the nine-county region. Those job losses were the worst since August 2009, when the region — mired at that time in the Great Recession — shed 9,000 jobs.

The Bay Area’s job-market recovery in recent years means tech companies today are chasing fewer job-seekers and could find it more difficult to find and hire the right people.

“We don’t see a tech bubble that is about to implode,” said Robert Kleinhenz, executive director of research with Beacon Economics. “We see an economy in general and a tech sector in particular that are bumping up against labor-market constraints as we get to full employment. The Bay Area, the nation, Santa Clara County are at full employment. That will slow down hiring.”

But Dinesh Prasad, a Milpitas resident seeking work in information technology, said he sees opportunity in the job market and is confident he can land employment in his field. He recently left a startup.

“It made sense to part ways, like it was the right time to leave and look for something else,” Prasad said. “The tech economy looks good and strong right now.”

Raquel Barron of El Sobrante has had a different experience. She’s been looking for work as an office manager, but said employers seem to prefer to offer work at $15 an hour, which is well under the $23 to $25 an hour that experienced office managers should make, in her view. She began looking for work in January.

Beyond the January job losses in Silicon Valley, state labor officials also made a downward revision Friday to 2016 job figures — revealing that the Santa Clara County job market was somewhat weaker last year than economists initially estimated. The South Bay added 31,100 jobs — 6,000 fewer than estimated.

“Tech will continue to add jobs in the Bay Area, but not nearly the same number of jobs as we saw coming out of the Great Recession,” Kleinhenz said.

On a brighter note, job markets in the East Bay and San Francisco-San Mateo regions were stronger in 2016 than initially thought. Last year, the East Bay gained 34,300 jobs, 4,700 more than prior estimates, while the San Francisco metro area added 34,400 jobs, which was 12,100 more than initial estimates by EDD economists.

Similarly, California’s economy was more robust than first thought. The Golden State added 356,100 jobs in 2016, which topped the initial estimates by 23,600, according to this newspaper’s analysis of the EDD figures.

The changes resulted from an annual revision by the EDD of its original reports about the job market during 2016 and prior years.

California’s jobless rate in January improved to 5.1 percent — the best level in 10 years — compared with 5.2 percent in December, the EDD reported. The last time the statewide unemployment rate was this low was in April 2007, prior to the Great Recession.

However, California added a scant 9,700 jobs during January.

For Santa Clara County, the biggest hits to the job market during January came in the construction, educational services and technology industries, according to a Beacon Economics analysis of the EDD figures. All of the Beacon estimates were adjusted for seasonal changes.

In January, Santa Clara County lost 1,200 jobs in educational services, 1,100 jobs in construction, 1,000 in technology and 700 in retail. Hotels and restaurants were among the few strong spots in the South Bay, adding 300 jobs.

“There is no way to know at this point whether the slowdown in January is temporary or a sign of future weakening here,” said Stephen Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.

The East Bay lost 3,100 retail jobs, 1,200 administrative support jobs and 600 transportation and wholesale jobs, Beacon’s analysis showed. Hotels and restaurants were particularly strong in the East Bay, adding 1,300 jobs in January. Tech companies gained 300 jobs.

The San Francisco-San Mateo region also suffered big losses in technology. The tech sector shed 1,000 jobs in January, while hotels and restaurants chopped 1,000 jobs. Educational services companies added 1,000 jobs while the health care sector added 800, according to Beacon’s analysis.