Walking down the street in small tourist towns like Beechworth and Bright, almost every cafe or shop has a "help wanted" sign in the window.
Beechworth Bakery employs more than 280 people at its eight locations in north-east Victoria, and general manager Rebekah Bachelor says it could easily put on another 50 — but it can't find the workers.
"There is a lot of government support out there for recruitment and wage subsidies and things, but nearly every hospitality business is facing the same concern," she said.
Ms Bachelor said the region was inundated with tourists, but almost every business in town did not have enough staff to keep up.
One major hurdle is housing for staff.
This thought is echoed by the marketing manager of Bright Brewery, Laura Gray.
"Housing has always been difficult in Bright; I would say it's pretty much at crisis level now," Ms Gray said.
"Even if we could find staff, there's nowhere for them to live.
"There's virtually no long-term rentals available ever. And if they do come onto the market, they're so expensive that hospitality workers and casual workers and younger people can't afford them."
'Always recruiting'
Bright Brewery is "desperately" looking for chefs and front-of-house staff.
"We're always recruiting," Ms Gray said.
"We're operating with four less chefs than we were this time last year.
The business has introduced incentives for staff if they can recruit others, and has been talking to local high schools to see if there are any juniors interested in working in food service. Beechworth Bakery has had to pay for hotel rooms for staff.
Ms Gray said they were dreading an inevitable exodus of many young locals who would be working at the ski slopes over winter.
But without rental housing available, there is only so much they can do.
"It's impossible for us to recruit from outside the area," she said.
"We really can't recruit anyone who doesn't already have somewhere to live."
No workforce, no recovery
The Regional Australia Institute (RAI) recently released a report on housing, titled 'Building the Good Life – Meeting the Demand for Regional Housing'.
Part of the paper looked at the lack of "suitable" housing in regional areas, namely social housing and smaller units or apartments for rental.
"This is preventing communities from bringing in the kind of workers they need, who are the glue that holds those communities together," Chief Economist Kim Horton said.
"In these small places of about 3000 people, about half the unmet need was one-or-two-bedroom units, not the traditional four-bedroom house on a large lot which people generally associate with regional living."
He said there were about 72,000 jobs vacant in regional Australia each month, and the lack of rental accommodation made it very difficult for businesses to fill them.
"Regional employers are really getting quite stuck now," he said.
"There's a national competition for good quality workers, and the inability for people to find good quality housing options for that staff is really slowing down a lot of post-COVID economic recovery."
Beechworth Bakery has had to revise some of its opening times, and limit the availability of some products due to staff shortages. Bright Brewery has had to pull out of big local events at certain times, and sometimes close sections of their seating.
Mr Horton said towns must be able to support all kinds of workers, including lower-paid service delivery jobs that were often essential to keeping a place afloat.
"There's a close connection between the availability of the right sort of housing, and some of those really core social and economic functions of a place," he said.
"Here we've got employers who are willing and able to give it a go, but can't actually realise that because of this crazy housing situation."
Mr Horton said he was pleased about the Regional Home Guarantee, outlined in the recent federal budget, which would help first home buyers build in regional areas. But he said it was essential the rental market was not forgotten.
He would like to see a massive investment in smaller properties suitable for renting, and a big boost to social housing.
Ms Bachelor said it could help businesses like theirs if there was some regulation around how many houses could be used as holiday rentals to ensure enough housing was available for the local workers keeping the tourist industry afloat.
"We love that, we love the tourism and want to keep seeing that grow by all means, but [we need] permanent residences available for the people living here."
