If you ask Jodeah Wilson how his life got off track, he\u2019ll say it\u2019s all about money.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He needs money for November rent. He also needs money to pay back the tuition he owes for the spring semester at Sacramento State University, which would allow him to re-enroll. Until then, he\u2019s stuck in limbo.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I need is a goddamn job so I can pay this off myself,\u201d he said. But it\u2019s been months and so far, he\u2019s still unemployed.<\/p>\n
To state leaders and researchers, though, it\u2019s more than just money. California has nearly 500,000 young people ages 16 to 24 who are in the same predicament, neither working nor in school. Finding them a job is part of the solution, but it goes much deeper than that. Many are struggling socially and emotionally, too, making it even harder to move forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Men are particularly at risk. In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an\u00a0executive order<\/a>\u00a0to address \u201cthe alarming rise in suicides and disconnection among California\u2019s young men and boys.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a \u201ccrisis<\/a>,\u201d Newsom told former President Bill Clinton in an interview at the Clinton Global Initiative last month. \u201cLook at the dropout rates. Look at the depths of despair. Look at the issues\u00a0around loneliness<\/a>. Look at every critical category. It\u2019s just blinking red lights for young men.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Newsom pointed to Charlie Kirk as a model for how to make young men feel heard and get them re-engaged politically, albeit\u00a0for Trump<\/a>. Then he slammed Democrats for ignoring these young men and their needs.<\/p>\n Wilson is convinced he\u2019s an exception to these trends and that his unemployment is temporary. He talks fast, speaking in short sentences, repeating himself when needed, like a coach hyping up a team. When he gets excited or gestures for emphasis, a dreadlock falls from his bun and shakes with his words.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been persistent,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can check Indeed. You can check Glassdoor. You can check my network. You can check how many career fairs I attended, how many internships I\u2019ve acquired.\u201d<\/p>\n His checking account has $76, and his savings account has 8 cents, he said during an interview earlier this month. Despite his persistence, he\u2019s worried about becoming homeless in November\u00a0 if a job doesn\u2019t materialize soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of the roughly 4.6 million Californians between the ages of 16 and 24, more than 10% are considered\u00a0disconnected<\/a>, meaning they\u2019re neither working nor in school, according to Kristen Lewis, the director of the research organization Measure of America. The majority are men, and Black and Native American men have higher rates.\u00a0<\/p>\n The reasons so many young men drop out of school and work are\u00a0varied<\/a>. Economists point to rising automation or the loss of male-dominated manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Some of these men have disabilities or are struggling with addiction or mental health challenges. Many are incarcerated \u2014 California\u2019s prisons\u00a0are 96% male.\u00a0<\/a>Most of California\u2019s\u00a0homeless population<\/a>\u00a0is male too.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Newsom, though, it\u2019s not just about men\u2019s role in the economy or education. In the executive order, he points to a slew of other disturbing statistics:<\/p>\n Nearly 1 in 4 men under the age of 30 say they have no close friends, a \u201cfive-fold increase since 1990\u201d and \u201cwith higher rates of disconnection for Black males.\u201dMen are\u00a0four times more likely<\/a>\u00a0than women to die by suicide \u2014 a disparity that has grown over the past few decades.Men also have higher rates of cardiovascular diseases and cancer.<\/p>\n Wilson, who is both Black and Native American, said his issues are just a product of the job market. He has been rejected by restaurants, call centers and delivery services over the past two years, representing more than 50 different online job applications on Indeed alone. He\u2019s done some seasonal or temporary work, he said, such as a four-hour catering shift about once a month, but other than that, he\u2019s had little professional luck.\u00a0<\/p>\n Regardless of the reason, the sole fact that he is neither working nor in school right now could have an impact on his future quality of life, even if he does find a job soon. Lewis, the Measure of America director, pointed to a\u00a0longitudinal study<\/a>\u00a0of young people in similar situations. It found they\u2019re likely to make less money and have worse health outcomes by the time they reach their 30s. The longer a person is unemployed and out of school, she said, the greater the likelihood of long-term consequences.<\/p>\n No car and no financial aid<\/p>\n In one of Wilson\u2019s communications classes at Sac State, a professor compared adulthood to the experience of climbing a rope, where every responsibility or misfortune is a knife, cutting off those who are too weak to climb any higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wilson said he feels like he\u2019s at the bottom of the rope and about to get cut off.<\/p>\n He started Sac State in the spring of 2024 with $20,000 in his bank account, money that he\u2019d saved by working at Red Robin while attending community college. But one year later, he had spent most of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n In January, Wilson was driving southbound on I-5 from his hometown of Redding toward Sac State, ready to start the spring semester. Near Arbuckle, he noticed the temperature gauge on his 2002 Honda Accord suddenly swung right. The car was slowing down, even though his foot was still on the gas. He pulled over to the breakdown lane and watched steam pour from the hood. By the time he had towed the car to a mechanic, it was too late, he said \u2014 part of the engine had melted.<\/p>\n Without a car, he struggled to find a job, he said. His grades started to slip, too. \u201cI needed to stop focusing on school and focus instead on how the hell I\u2019m going to get this rent and tuition paid.\u201d<\/p>\n For Lewis, who has long studied the struggles that young people face, it\u2019s everyday setbacks \u2014 a broken car, failing grades \u2014 that often set someone on the path to dropping out of school or abandoning the workforce. \u201cYoung people who are out of school and out of work basically need what all young people need,\u201d she said. \u201cThey need guidance. They need help. They need understanding. They need a chance to try and fail and try again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n California offers generous financial aid for the majority of students enrolled at California State University campuses, covering tuition and daily living costs such as food and housing, but Wilson doesn\u2019t qualify. Although he\u2019s 22, he\u2019s still considered a child for the purposes of financial aid, and his father, who owns a construction company, and his father\u2019s new wife, a paralegal, collectively make too much money for him to qualify for state or federal aid, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wilson\u2019s father helped out a little over the spring semester, sending a few hundred dollars to his bank account when funds were low, but the major costs, such as rent and tuition, have always been Wilson\u2019s sole responsibility. He\u2019s proud of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c(My father) supports me where it\u2019s necessary, but in other aspects of my life, he shouldn\u2019t, because I\u2019m a man. I\u2019m supposed to kind of do what I got to do,\u201d said Wilson. Though he finished the spring semester, he owes over $4,000 in missed tuition payments, which he has to pay before he can re-enroll.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ten years of depression, never seeking help<\/p>\n If you ask Will Rose how his life got off track, he\u2019ll say it\u2019s all about mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n After dropping out of college 10 years ago, Rose, now 29,\u00a0 always thought he might return, though he never did. He worked retail jobs, mostly for Target, while living at his father\u2019s house in Hermosa Beach. In retrospect, he said he was often depressed, though he wasn\u2019t conscious of it at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n At night after working a shift or in the middle of the day, during one of his stints of unemployment, Rose would drive around the corner to the 7-Eleven and return home with a Big Gulp, Cheetos or Takis. \u201cAnything that would overload my senses,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Over the course of 10 years, he gained more than 60 pounds. When he felt stuck, he would buzz off all his hair as a way to regain control over his body and his life.<\/p>\n As a follow-up to Newsom\u2019s executive order, state agencies submitted a 75-page document outlining the work they\u2019re doing to support young men. The mental health team at California Health and Human Services\u00a0 highlighted a federally funded project run by the state, which helped set up nearly 250 billboards in all of California\u2019s major cities featuring the faces of young men, looking hopeful or determined. Next to each face is the 9-8-8 suicide and crisis number.\u00a0 The goal is to help men see that \u201cit\u2019s OK to not feel OK, and it\u2019s OK to ask for help,\u201d said Ahn Thu Bui, a project director at the California Health and Human Services Agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her colleague at the agency, Stephanie Welch, added that most mental health professionals are female, which makes it even harder for some men to feel welcome in a therapist\u2019s office. Nationally, suicide is\u00a0a leading cause of death\u00a0<\/a>among men ages 15 to 44 \u2014 with more men dying by suicide than cancer, heart disease or homicide. Yet men are less likely to seek treatment for mental health issues than women, Bui said.\u00a0<\/p>\n