Downtown San Diego's concentration of high-quality talent has become integral to the expansion of the life science sector in the region. A new report on demographics from The Downtown San Diego Partnership, along with the City of San Diego and San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, found that the Downtown San Diego area has an overconcentration of high-skilled talent, which has helped contribute to the expansion of the life science and technology companies, which are rapidly adding jobs and competing for talent.

Downtown San Diego has 70,669 jobs, about 4.2% of the regions total. Professional, scientific and technology jobs account for the vast majority of jobs in the market, more than 13,000 jobs in total. Food services is next with a little more than 10,000 jobs, and the government comes in third, supplying 6,885 jobs in the market.

While the life science and technology sectors contribute the most jobs, Downtown San Diego has a high concentration of low-wage jobs in the leisure, arts and food and beverage markets. The market has double the average concentration of accommodation and food service jobs, and four times the average of arts, entertainment and recreation jobs. As a result, the market slightly underperforms in terms of economic output. While it houses 4.2% of the area's jobs, it only added $9.8 billion in value to the regional economy, or 4% of GDP, according to the report.