[Michelangelo11]

Well, another comment in the thread said it's probably because funding sources are drying up and this is an attempt to make up for it, and that sounds likeliest to me now.

Re: housekeeping, in that specific case (and this applies to many other service occupations too), my money is without hesitation on a much sadder cause, i.e. COVID killing people or giving them long-term disabilities, which strongly shrank the workforce.