A collective monograph “Modern Russian youth outside of employment and education: who is to blame and what to do?” (ed. N.N. Shestakovа) is discussed based on the results of a study of youth (2019) and experts (2020), on the identification, assessment and diagnosis of the human potential of NEET youth, as well as ways and means of its activation. The problem of excluding young people from the spheres of work and education is becoming urgent today, owing, i.a. to the shrinking size of the younger generation. In general, supporting the authors of the monograph in its many provisions, it is emphasized that understanding of the problem only through realization of the human capital of this group and its capitalization is narrow, since there goes a reformatting of normative ideas about employment and labor in general, especially among young people. Heterogeneity of the object under study is particularly emphasized. Therefore, the authors’ comprehensive approach to activating the human potential of NEET youth can be implemented via working with specific categories of this group, for not everyone needs support. However, the problem is that those in need of assistance have a low level of trust in government agencies and a low level of knowledge about various support measures.