Committee 4 Wagga chief executive Alan Johnston said the city will always be competing with other towns for the exact same skills to push forward similar projects.

On top of this the talent pool is already short in supply, Mr Johnston said, who noted the Snowy Hydro development and mining industries are vacuums of skilled professionals.

"Any significant infrastructure - be that private enterprise or public - requires the same skill set like Pomingalarna, the solar farm and the next stage of the hospital redevelopment," he said. "We are still looking at the road network and the challenge is that it is statewide projects and everyone is competing."

Although the projects will eventually come to fruition, Mr Johnston said the questions are how quickly and at what cost. He said the Snowy Hydro redevelopment has been attractive to professionals and the key will be to find ways to be just as inviting.

Wagga City Council has recently announced its plan to set-up a Sydney office in a bid to fill vacant roles.

"The council's Sydney office is a good initiative because it is not necessarily that easy to get people to leave the comforts of the metropolitan area," Mr Johnston said. "We are about to see a considerable infrastructure spend with projects coming to fruition and the construction industry will be challenged.

"It will be widespread, but it's also an opportunity to attract the right talent and hopefully grow our own over a period of time."

A Charles Sturt University senior lecturer in employment relations and human resource management said Wagga's specialist skill shortage was "better off" than other regions, given its regional centre status.

With this in mind, Dr Larissa Bamberry said the challenge to attract professionals to Wagga could indicate an issue with the skill environment.

She believed salary was not an issue, given that local government's are renowned for providing suitable wages and yet Wagga's very own council has been forced to set up a metropolitan base.

Dr Bamberry said regional areas need to consider three strategic approaches that could help alleviate the pressures of shortages.

"It is a situation of niches in the market where people aren't trained in certain areas of their industry, so we could convert or up-skill," she said.

"One of the issues is focusing on getting men into nine-to-five jobs, but if we make more part-time available then we attract women with the same skills as well.

"The other thing we can do is grow our own - use a local to get the skill they need."