So far this year, job growth in Sonora has been better than in most other Mexican states.

That’s according to the state’s economy secretary Jorge Vidal. He was pointing to recent federal data that show that Sonora is up more than 20,000 formal jobs over the roughly 600,000 at the end of 2020.

That’s the seventh highest figure of Mexico’s 32 states. Vidal chalked the increase up to continued investment in the state during the pandemic.

“We are grateful to foreign and national investors for their confidence in Sonora to continue investing and generating jobs for Sonorans,” he said in a statement.

However, the federal data also show two consecutive months of losses in April and May, totaling more than 9,000 jobs. The state also remains well below the figure in February 2020, the first full month before pandemic restrictions went into place.

The federal jobs data do not include informal positions, which are a substantial part of the workforce in Sonora and the rest of Mexico.