The chancellor has indicated that highly skilled workers may be exempt from the government's planned immigration controls.
Philip Hammond said he could not see why firms should be restricted from recruiting "high level" workers.
The public was not concerned about controls on "computer programmers, brain surgeons, bankers", he said.
The chancellor said voters wanted restrictions on those migrants competing for "entry level jobs".
"I cannot conceive of any circumstances in which we would be using those migration controls to prevent banks, companies moving highly qualified, highly skilled people between different parts of their businesses," he said.
Giving evidence to MPs on the Treasury Select Committee, Mr Hammond did not dispel suggestions that he supported students being taken out of the target for reducing net migration.
Mr Hammond's comments will fuel growing speculation that the government wants to introduce a work visa scheme aimed at low-skilled migrants.
On Tuesday night Downing Street released details of the aims of the government's immigration sub-committee, which included a commitment to introduce a "targeted visa scheme".
Elsewhere, Mr Hammond - who supported the remain campaign - appeared critical of some of his pro-Brexit cabinet colleagues.
He said those seeking "hard decisions" risked undermining the prime minister's negotiations with the European Union.
The chancellor also criticised some of the recent briefing against him: "It would be far more helpful if we could conduct negotiations privately without leaks to newspapers."