In September, Sonora, the Mexican state to Arizona’s south, added nearly 12,000 formal jobs after months of losses.
The rise in Sonora was one of the largest nationwide, according to federal jobs data. It came after sustained monthly losses since February that totaled nearly 40,000 formal jobs during the pandemic. The figure does not include informal jobs, which account for a sizable portion of the workforce nationwide.
“It indicates to us that the curve ... is now heading up,” said Humberto Garcia, a researcher with the Colegio de la Frontera Norte who is part of an ongoing investigationof business impacts of the pandemic in Sonora. Sustaining the trend will require avoiding major new outbreaks by observing pandemic safety measures, he added.
In recent months, many sectors of the economy have reopened, while new cases and deaths have been steadily trending downward, according to datatracked by the University of Sonora.
