There is still a need for overseas workers in the Australian workforce, Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce says.

Abattoirs was one example where employers were struggling to fill vacancies with local labour, he said.

The government has announced that the skilled migration program intake will be cut by nearly 20,000 - from 133,500 to 115,000 - this financial year, as it cuts occupations from its critical skills list.

Bricklayers, plumbers, welders, carpenters and metal fitters are among the occupations taken off the list as demand for skilled labour falls in the building and construction sectors.

Senator Joyce, in cautiously welcoming the announcement, said the Government still needed to be careful about cutting worker immigration, especially for the meat-processing sector where operators struggled to maintain full production.

"If we take away 30 per cent of the production line, you end up closing the whole production line down," he told reporters in Canberra.

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