Google says it has had to change its recruitment plans after the Federal Government's 457 visa changes.

In August 2017, 457 visas were dumped in favour of a tightened temporary skill shortage (TSS) visa, in a move that also saw 200 positions cut from the list of eligible positions for skilled migration.

While many IT roles on the previous 457 list were spared, Google says its plans to hire staff in disciplines outside of the IT domain were affected.

“Business-critical skills have been excluded from the longer term visa categories that are necessary to attract workers with the knowledge and experience required to train younger Australian employees,” Google said, according to reports from tech news outlet Computerworld.

“Examples include product managers, who need high level software engineering, project management and people leadership skills; user experience (UX) specialists, whose sub disciplines are covered by a number of Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) codes; and technical solutions and systems administrators proficient in Google’s proprietary products and systems.”

Google says proprietary knowledge is “among the most critical skill categories for workers within complex modern businesses.”

“This is not recognised in the structure of Australia’s current skilled migration system, which also pigeon-holes emerging roles in rapidly changing businesses into existing ANZSCO skill categories,” it said.

The tech giant said visa changes should have given workers more confidence to move to Australia.

“Uprooting a family to move across the world is a significant decision, and although Australia offers a high standard of living, the nation's current visa scheme does not provide the stability required for senior workers with families and children if their role falls into a short term skill category,” Google said.

“This makes it difficult to recruit workers, and means roles that are necessary for Google’s business operations are harder to place in Australia compared to other centres across the region.”

Google says the “majority” of its 1300 staff in Australia are Australian.