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I've seen multiple academic sources use these interchangeably — even one noting it's done consciously — but my inclination as a native speaker is (was?) that "highly skilled" is always correct and "high-skilled" isn't.

However, I noticed that there's a trend toward "high-skilled," even if it remains in the minority as of 2019.

Which is correct? Or are they interchangeable? Do any style guides address this specifically?

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    Could "high-skilled" be an Indian English thing? (The paper you cite is Indian.) NGrams still shows that "highly skilled" is far more common in UK and US but doesn't have a separate thing for Indian English. (But note "high" can be an adverb too so it's not ungrammatical.)
    – Stuart F
    Commented Aug 5 at 8:47
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    I (Australian) have never heard "high-skilled", and on reading it I automatically wondered how it would differ from "highly skilled". As a result it suggested to me somebody who has learned advanced skills, but may not be highly competent.
    – Peter
    Commented Aug 5 at 10:57
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    "high-flying" is common, so maybe it's modelled on that (you "fly high" not "fly highly").
    – Stuart F
    Commented Aug 5 at 12:33
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    Examples of ‘high-skilled’ people: steeplejacks, trapeze artists, airship pilots, astronauts…
    – gidds
    Commented Aug 5 at 18:40
  • Yeah, with those ngrams it would be good to actually see where they dredge "high skill" up from.
    – Lambie
    Commented Aug 6 at 14:37

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Word Reference includes both 'high skilled' and 'highly skilled' in its list of (...)

Forum discussions with the word(s) "skilled" in the title:

  • high-skilled workers
  • highly skilled workers

...

Collins Online Dictionary and Cambridge Dictionary list 'highly skilled' but not 'high-skilled'. Merriam-Webster includes only an example of the former.

But Thesaurus.com includes examples containing both 'highly-skilled' and 'low-skilled':

  • Highly-skilled professionals across sectors have a leg up when employers cherry-pick roles to reward. [Quartz]

  • However, the enormous benefits that low-skilled immigrants provide more than make up for that relatively small cost. [Daily Beast]

(but of course, 'lowly skilled' would be farcical, with or without a hyphen).

A Wikipedia article contains skilled, unskilled, semi-skilled, non-skilled and highly-skilled, as well as "Obama Immigration Order to Impact Millions, Includes Provisions for High-Skilled Workers".

Although many credible examples for the collocation/compound adjective 'high skilled' can be found on the internet, Google ngram results would indicate a 5 : 1 ratio in favour of 'highly skilled' at the moment.

So the best policy is to choose the favoured form, and not be upset if someone chooses the valid alternative.

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    I've been trying to figure out how somebody can manage to skill high, but so far am complete stumped myself. :)
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Aug 5 at 20:36
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    Probably the same way someone can belly yellow, face two, or heart half.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 5 at 22:20
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    This usage chart clearly shows how quickly the "flat" format has taken off in just the last couple of decades. It certainly looks as if (hyphenated) high-skilled workers will overtake (unhyphenated) highly skilled workers within the next decade or so. I'm a bit baffled as to why the emerging form is so firmly wedded to the hyphen, but there it is.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Aug 6 at 16:46
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High-skilled can be parsed the same way as red-haired or warm-hearted. All such scraps of the form ADJ-Ned have the meaning of “possessing or characterized by (a) N that is ADJ.”

The particular one you ask about, high-skilled, is on the same model as high-strung, high-handed, and high-spirited… and even the solid-set highborn. It may, however, be a good deal less idiomatic than all these others.

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In my personal experience, 'high-skilled' is exclusively used by South Asian people (i.e. from Pakistan, India, or some neighbouring countries). It is used instead of the standard 'highly skilled', and I would consider it a strong indication of the speaker's origin.

That said, I just googled the phrase, expecting a lot of Indian news sites to support my assertion, but instead found a variety of non-Asian sites, including academic work from Australia, the USA, and the UK (though of course the authors could have been from anywhere).

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