San Diego is rich with talent, serving as the catalyst for large companies to grow throughout the market. And, UC San Diego generates the second-greatest number of STEM degrees in the country at 6,482 a year, according to JLL’s most recent report.

Demonstrating tech’s impact to the growth of the innovation sector, high-tech firms have increased the total number of employees by 20 percent since 2014. A key indicator that high-tech job growth will continue is through another robust year of venture capital funding, which enabled local companies to expand. In fact, San Diego tech venture capital beat the billion-dollar mark for the first time in 2020, increasing 50 percent from 2019. Only halfway through the first quarter, tech VC is already at $322 million.

In meeting that demand, San Diego’s tech market continues to lure companies feeling the pinch from higher rents and heated talent competition in other coastal tech markets. The combined defense, software and general technology industries represented about one-third of the office leasing in 2020, indicating the potential for more high-tech jobs in the foreseeable future.