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Organisations in many OECD countries have undergone a decade of downsizing, restructuring and transition. For example, workforce reductions were a dominant feature of firm behaviour in Australia during the 1990s. These wide-ranging organisational transitions are expected to continue. What do the new organisational forms and new job structures mean in relation to skill trends? This article examines the changing paradigms for understanding long-term skill change and assesses their relevance by empirically examining the relationship between downsizing, deskilling/upskilling and contingent labour use in larger firms. The analysis is based on a comprehensive, longitudinal data set of 4153 companies. A key finding is that downsizing was used as a vehicle for a different form of 'deskilling' across the 1990s. Alongside the 'knowledge organisation', there are processes of deknowledging the firm.