Jalisco drove national employment growth in August, creating 21.9% of all new jobs across the country. Official statistics show that the Mexican economy added 36,631 new jobs last month and 8,019 of those were in the western state.
Governor Enrique Alfaro Ramírez said that last month’s job numbers are 54% higher than the historical average for Jalisco during August.
Economic Development Secretary Ernesto Sánchez Proal said the numbers showed that the state government’s strategies to attract investment to Jalisco and support the export of locally made products are working.
Alejandro Guzmán Larralde, the state government’s strategic coordinator for growth and economic development, highlighted that the strong employment figures can partially be attributed to the recovery of jobs in the agri-food sector.
“It’s great news that our agri-food sector is recuperating jobs lost in the previous two months. The government is continuing to invest in infrastructure that provides the necessary conditions to increase our competitiveness and maintain investment that increases employment, remuneration and the quality of life of Jalisco residents,” he said.
Statistics from the Mexican Social Security Institute show that Jalisco ranks third for job creation during the first eight months of the year behind only Mexico City and Nuevo León. The Jalisco economy added 39,138 formal sector jobs between January and August, maintaining an employment growth average of 2.2%, which is 0.5% higher than the national average.
Guzmán said the government is predicting economic expansion of 3 percent in Jalisco in 2019, a figure well above the central bank’s latest outlook for the national economy of growth in the range of 0.2% and 0.7%.