Pauline Dunstan's desk used to be scattered with resumes, but these days, when she needs it most, there is not a piece of paper in sight.
"It's really only been a problem this year now that all the tourists are coming," she said.
"It's very hard on staff, they're exhausted. I try to give everyone two days off, but that's impossible."
Ms Dunstan, who manages the 50-room Pine Tree Motel in the regional Northern Territory town of Katherine says she's down four staff, and battling to stay on top of the never-ending workload.
"It's taking it's toll. You just don't know, are you going to wake up and my housekeepers are all sick because they are run down?" she said.
As diners return to restaurants and pubs and tourists flock interstate, business owners should be revelling.
Instead they are being forced to turn away customers or close for days at a time as they compete for a shrunken pool of job applicants.
With the labour shortage impacting on a range of industries, what does the new federal government plan to do to address the crisis?
The 'lag effect'
Last week, NT Chamber of Commerce chief executive Greg Ireland said the Northern Territory alone would need about 3,000 additional workers to ease the pressure.
"We've got a real shortage of backpackers coming to the Territory. And that's been an issue for some time, predominantly COVID-driven," he said.
"It's a potential bottleneck that could derail some of the great work that's being done on the Territory economy, and it is probably top of the list of every conversation that we have with Territory businesses."
In Western Australia, Pi-Shen Seet is dealing with his own staffing problems; the workforce at Edith Cowan University is down 20 per cent, and his work is piling up.
The professor of entrepreneurship and innovation said the labour shortage – like most things these days — could be linked back to COVID-19.
"The borders of Australia were closed and that led to at least an 85 per cent fall in migration," Professor Seet said.
"International students dried up, backpackers had to leave, and the government also encouraged temporary visa holders to go back to their own countries."
While the borders have largely reopened, and people are coming to Australia again, Professor Seet said there was a "lag effect", which could take its toll for more than a year.
To make matters worse, in the wake of tighter COVID-19 border policies, Professor Seet said Australia had gained itself a reputation and lots of people were choosing to go elsewhere where the rules were more relaxed.
What's the plan to address staff shortages?
A spokesman for the federal Department of Education, Skills and Employment said the Labor government had committed to a number of initiatives to tackle the crisis.
He said the government would provide 465,000 fee-free TAFE places for students studying in skills-shortage areas of the economy and 20,000 extra university places in 2022 and 2023.
The spokesman said there were plans to implement cheaper childcare and set up a new agency, called Jobs and Skills Australia, to provide independent advice to government.
"The government is also committed to supporting better wages for Australian workers, closing the gender pay gap, putting security back into work, making wage theft illegal and paying workers the same pay for the same jobs," he said.
So, is it enough?
According to Professor Seet, the government is taking a "measured long-term approach [which] takes into consideration a bit more of the complexity of everything".
He said the only short-term solution the government was offering was cheaper childcare, which relied on there being enough childcare centres and enough skilled workers.
"There is a saying in economics, which is attributed to [John Maynard] Keynes that "in the long run, we are all dead,'" Professor Seet said.
"So if you don't support them during this period, you may find that whatever initiatives that the government comes out with … may not be successful or may not work to save the current businesses.
"It's a paradox where the government comes up with a solution and it doesn't address the short-term problem."
Soaring rental prices and record low vacancy rates are one of the biggest constraints to people taking up work in regional areas, Professor Seet said.
"There's not enough housing and there's not enough accommodation for these people to move there," he said.
"It is having a big, big impact."
