The article aims to present and discuss factors determining the growing importance of human capital in contemporary labour markets. These factors include: economic globalization, international specialization, technological development, a shift from mass production to production of more specialized and individualized goods, a shift from manufacturing production to service economies (de-industrialization, tertiarization) as well as changes in organization of production, de-standardization of employment, and population ageing. Additionally, in Central and Eastern European countries these factors include the transition from centrally-planned to market economies. The article concludes with an analysis of the risk of human capital obsolescence as a consequence of some of the abovementioned factors.