Nearly 30 million Americans are spending their 20s in the same place they spent their grade school years: at home with their parents.

The big picture: For the first time since the Great Depression, the majority of 18- to 29-year-olds have moved back home. Those living arrangements can come with a great deal of awkwardness and pain, but families across America are making the most of it.

"I’m worried about it," says Jeffrey Arnett, a psychologist at Clark University, who coined the term "emerging adults" for 18- to 29-year-olds. "I think we all should be. The rates of being depressed and anxious have really gone up among emerging adults."

Reasons for moving home vary. The coronavirus recession has hit young people especially hard, and many are living with family because they've lost their jobs or haven't been able to find work after college or grad school.

Others wanted some company during lockdowns.

• "You can’t imagine how great it is to hear that I’m in the majority of my generation," says Elsa Anschuetz, a 24-year-old working in public relations out of her childhood bedroom. "It is definitely not where I thought I’d be at this stage in my life, but, at least to me, it is definitely better than living in an apartment alone during this crazy pandemic."
• "My friends who are at home or with friends in large roommate groups seem to be faring better than people on their own," says Alex Jang, a consultant in his early 20s who's living with his parents, grandparents, girlfriend and dogs in Orinda, California.

But, but, but: There's a host of unforeseen consequences that come with moving back in with parents, young people say.

• Kegan Zimmerman, a junior at the University of Minnesota who lived with his family for a couple of months early in the pandemic, says he had to boot his younger brothers off the WiFi to take Zoom classes.
• "There was also an issue of feeling like you lose a piece of your personality or character," he says. "While moving back home during the pandemic makes sense and is seen as socially acceptable or even smart, it also means you are living with people who still see you as your 18-year-old self."

And for those in their late 20s, who likely had been living on their own for years, returning home can be even more painful. "It’s much harder, and it feels like much more of a retreat," Arnett says.

There are silver linings, one father tells me:

"I'm a dad who is happy to have his daughter and fiancé living with me. They pay the utilities and make me nice meals, and it makes it a lot less lonely here. ... I like the multi-generational thing. I know it won't last forever, but it makes life better for now."

The coronavirus pandemic has supercharged the freelance economy.

Why it matters: Millions of workers are freelancers by choice, but millions of others are wading into this riskier and less stable way of life because of the pandemic's economic turmoil.

By the numbers: The freelance economy is now worth $1.2 trillion, a 22% increase from 2019, according to a new report from Upwork.

• There are 59 million freelancers in the U.S. — just over a third of the workforce — and 36% of them do this type of work full-time, up from 28% last year.
• Two fast-growing freelancer cohorts are parents who are juggling child care and work during the pandemic and Gen Zers, many of whom are learning remotely or taking a year off from college, says Adam Ozimek, chief economist at Upwork.
• 48% of freelancers are caregivers, and half of Gen Zers are freelancing, per the report.

"Freelancers are dealing with the same economy everyone else is dealing with," Ozimek says.

• While the availability of freelancing gigs has increased in telework-friendly industries like tech and finance, it has slumped in education and entertainment.

The bottom line: In such uncertain times, "freelancing is really flexible for both the workers and the companies," Ozimek says. "They're the first ones in. But then they're also the first ones out. That’s part of the flexibility companies get from it."

Six months into pandemic-induced telework, employees' priorities are changing.

• Company culture seems to matter as much — if not more — to workers as getting promoted, says Amy Lavoie, who leads people science at Glint, a human resources platform owned by LinkedIn.

Why it matters: That's a seismic shift in the way Americans think about work — and it underscores the need for CEOs to pay close attention to culture during the pandemic and beyond.

What's happening: 37% of U.S. workers feel less connected to their teammates than they did before the pandemic — and 31% feel less connected to their managers — according to an ongoing survey of employee sentiment, conducted by Glint and provided to Axios.

• Nearly 1 in 5 workers say their firms aren't doing enough to make employees feel connected to one another.
• And those who say their companies aren't doing enough are twice as likely to say they feel burned out.

Fostering a good work culture is especially important at firms that have undergone rounds of layoffs, per the report.

• 56% of employees said they felt less happy after seeing colleagues get furloughed or laid off, and 47% said those events detracted from their sense of belonging at work.

The bottom line: As the pandemic drags on, companies should be watching out for high rates of burnout, Lavoie says. "The pandemic could result in large populations of disengaged employees."

Jane Fraser made history last week, becoming the first female big-bank CEO in U.S. history, Axios' Felix Salmon and I write.

• She's triumphed in the world's most competitive arenas — Goldman Sachs, Harvard Business School, McKinsey and now Citigroup, where she will become CEO in February.
• Given that being on the "mommy track" used to disqualify women from such high office, Fraser's ascent and accomplishments are particularly noteworthy.

But the job that Jane Fraser says challenged her the most is among the most common in the world: Mom.

In her own words: "Being a mother of young children and having a career is the toughest thing I have ever had to do," she told an internal McKinsey interviewer after she left the consulting firm. 

• Fraser talked of being "exhausted" and "guilty" despite being "blessed with a great partner in my husband who shares the responsibilities fully" — even though she officially worked only part time while raising small children.
• Fraser's husband, Alberto Piedra, quit his job as head of global banking at European bank Dresdner Kleinwort in order to support her career.

Between the lines: Fraser's mentor, Lowell Bryan, explained to the Financial Times what "part time" meant at McKinsey: When staying with Fraser and her husband, he would find her working on her computer in the kitchen at 3am.

• Working part time at McKinsey was "tough," Fraser told CNN. "You're seeing people who you've managed and you’ve brought into the firm then progressing faster than you."

The bottom line: Fraser epitomizes a work-life balance problem that's present at the top levels of any industry — and one that has only been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

• Working mothers routinely juggle responsibilities and are — either directly or indirectly — punished for it at work.

As I wrote last week, the companies that rely on the stay-at-home economy have been pandemic-era winners.

• For example, Peloton's stock surged after the company announced its fiscal fourth-quarter sales jumped 172%, leaving investors salivating.

But, but, but: A new survey from CivicScience suggests the company may have a hard time finding new customers, Axios' Dion Rabouin writes.

By the numbers: Just 2% of those surveyed are Peloton users and only 4% say they plan to use the products. Worse, the numbers don't improve much at higher income levels — just 1% of respondents making $50,000 or less, 2% of those earning between $50,000–$100,000, and 3% of those earning over $100,000 are users.

• High earners are the most likely to report being interested in Peloton, but only 7% of those earning at least $50,000 say they are interested.

Coronavirus brings boom for bicycles (Axios)

• A cycling boom has materialized, with people around the globe taking part in the two-wheel revolution at unprecedented levels. This could permanently alter cities, which have fast-tracked bike-friendly changes to urban infrastructure as the pandemic refuses to relent.

Japan's unfulfilled promise to female workers (New York Times)

• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a pledge to elevate women in the country's workforce, calling it "womenomics." But Japanese women are still waiting for change, the Times' Motoko Rich and Hisako Ueno write. Women still hold under 12% of corporate management jobs — far less than Abe's goal of 30%.

Facebook buys REI's corporate playground (Wall Street Journal)

• You can't make this stuff up. Before the pandemic, Recreational Equipment Inc. built an impressive Seattle-area headquarters: a 400,000-square-foot campus with skylights, bridges and a big courtyard. Then came the lockdowns and the telework era, and REI never actually moved into the office. Now, the company is selling it to Facebook for $367.6 million.

Can cities survive without office workers? (Quartz)

• Quartz at Work zooms in on the link between office-goers and local economies in the U.K., where six months into the coronavirus pandemic, just 17% of people have returned to workplaces.

Back when things were normal, startups and Fortune 500 behemoths alike were battling to lure employees with office perks like foosball tables, beer on tap and free lunch.

• As we've transitioned to working remotely, firms are doing their best to keep the perks coming.

Grubhub says it is partnering with companies to cater virtual meetings and webinars. Eating the same thing as your co-workers, who are scattered all over the place, can bring teams together.

Here are some other creative remote perks, per the Wall Street Journal, because Zoom happy hours are getting really, really old:

• Buying Netflix subscriptions and board games for employees.
• Hiring a comedian or a magician to put on a show or bringing in a bartender to conduct a mixology class.

One Massachusetts-based biotech firm sent DIY ukulele kits to everyone's houses and hosted a virtual build-your-own-instrument lesson.