Boston’s once-booming office market is starting to reflect concerns of a global recession, as tenants pull back on leasing activity.

Boston’s central business district, Cambridge and the suburbs all had slight negative absorption during the first quarter, as companies start to assess the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, brokerage Newmark Knight Frank reported Tuesday.

“A lot of things are on hold waiting to see exactly what happens next,” said Liz Berthelette, research director for NKF in Boston. “Any tenant that was out looking is probably taking stock.”

Demand for big chunks of space in the 181 million-square-foot Greater Boston office market had already started to wane following the decade-long real estate growth cycle, and the pandemic is expected to have more significant effects during the second quarter.

Boston’s central business district had 39,680 square feet of negative absorption in the first quarter, the worst quarter in three years. But the 7.1 percent vacancy rate in Boston and 4.6 percent vacancy rate in Cambridge reflects the market’s strong fundamentals heading into the global crisis.

“We’re in a mature economy, vacancies are really low and tenants that were looking for space had few options,” Berthelette said. “Market fundamentals were really tight and it’s hard to see that same level of growth when your vacancy rate is below 8 percent.”

Throughout Greater Boston, the office market had 51,000 square feet of negative absorption, a sharp contrast to the 1 million square feet of positive absorption in the fourth quarter of 2019. The suburban vacancy rate ended the quarter at 15.3 percent.

The pullback hasn’t yet affected rents, with landlords continuing to seek increases particularly in class B office properties, the report noted.