The Bay Area’s red-hot job market reached a new milestone Friday as unemployment levels fell to their lowest level since the dot-com boom 15 years ago.

With the South Bay and San Francisco continuing to add jobs in November, the strong market may give workers the ability to pressure their employers to raise wages, economists said, following a monthly state jobs report.

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Reopening California theme parks: What’s the rush? Jobless rates in Santa Clara County, the San Francisco-San Mateo area and the East Bay are at their lowest since at least 2001, according to data provided by Beacon Economics.

“This kind of dynamic normally puts upward pressure on wages,” said Stephen Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. “And when you add the expansions in Silicon Valley that are being planned by companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, we will have even more upward pressure on wages.”

The East Bay’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been since May 2001, dropping to 4 percent in November from 4.3 percent the prior month.

In the South Bay, the jobless rate — now at 3.5 percent — hasn’t been this low since March 2001.

And in the San Francisco-San Mateo area, the 3 percent unemployment rate is at its lowest level since April 2000, the Beacon analysis shows. The jobless rates were all adjusted for seasonal changes.

“When you are talking about unemployment rates at 4 percent or lower in the Bay Area, I would certainly consider that full employment,” said Jeffrey Michael, director of the Stockton-based Center for Business and Policy Research at University of the Pacific. The Bay Area has been at full employment since at least the middle of this year.

Even though unemployment rates fell across the Bay Area, the East Bay suffered job losses in November, the state Employment Development Department reported Friday. Because the unemployment rate and job gains and losses are derived from two different surveys, they don’t necessarily move in the same direction every month.

Overall, because of the mix of job gains and losses in different parts of the region, the Bay Area added just 400 jobs in November, the EDD said.

Santa Clara County employers added 2,900 jobs, with the tech sector leading those gains. In the San Francisco-San Mateo area, 1,100 jobs were added in November. The East Bay lost 3,500 jobs last month, according to seasonally adjusted figures from government labor agencies, the EDD said.

California added 13,600 jobs in November. That means Santa Clara County produced 21 percent of the state’s gains last month — one out of every five jobs, according to the EDD.

During the most recent 12 months, the Bay Area job market has continually outperformed both California and the United States. Total jobs have increased by 2.7 percent in the Bay Area, by 2.3 percent in the state and 1.6 percent in the U.S.

“A lot of people are getting hired in tech, but most tech jobs being offered now are contract jobs,” said Gabriel Garcia, a senior systems engineer who lives in San Jose. “Because they are contract work, tech jobs are not as lucrative as you might imagine.”

Garcia had been working with a tech company in San Jose on a contract basis, but he just landed a full-time position with benefits at a tech firm in San Francisco.

Michelle Thompson, of San Juan Bautista, who is looking for work as a bookkeeper, said she has seen the signs of the improving job market. “I’ve been getting job interviews lately,” she said.

The East Bay’s worst job losses came in the tech sector, though health care and retail also lost jobs, according to the Beacon analysis. The area’s strongest category in November was hotels and restaurants, which added 500 positions, Beacon said.

“We’re not sure what happened in the East Bay. It could be an anomaly,” said Jon Haveman, principal economist with San Rafael-based Marin Economic Consulting. “But the growth is pretty solid in the South Bay and the San Francisco area.”

Over the past 12 months, Santa Clara County’s job base has expanded by 3.3 percent, while the San Francisco-San Mateo region has grown 2.7 percent and the East Bay has grown 2.3 percent.

“Over the last year, we have brought people back into the workforce and lowered the unemployment rate,” Levy said. “That means they got hired almost as soon as they started looking for work.”