The paper examines the impact of rising human resource ( HR ) endowments on the relative factor intensity and composition of manufactured exports of Singapore and Malaysia. Following the traditional approach, relative factor intensities are approximated by wage and non-wage value added per employee. The findings show that the manufacturing activities in both countries have become more HR intensive. While in Singapore, the HR upgrading has accompanied substantial upgrading of capital equipment, a wedge between the skill and capital upgrading appears to have developed in Malaysia. This seemingly peculiar phenomenon in Malaysia may have been due to the dominance of electronics assembling which is very capital intensive but requires little skill.