'Unemployment, not deficit, will haunt our kids'; China's balancing act; 'Drones are here to stay'; It takes 90 minutes to make an impression

1 ‘Unemployment, not deficit, will haunt our kids’ (Heather Stewart in The Guardian) A salutary report from the International Labour Organisation suggests that today's generation of young people is already bearing more than its fair share of the costs of the crisis. "In advanced economies, long-term unemployment has arrived as an unexpected tax on the current generation of youth," the report says. In total, the ILO calculates that 73 million young people around the world are out of work – close to the peak during the Great Recession of 2008-09.

That lack of financial security makes it harder to think about settling down, starting a family, planning for the future. For many millions of young people – an entire generation – the economic system is simply failing. The latest official figures showed that in Portugal, the youth unemployment rate hit 42.1% in the first quarter of 2013, while in Greece, official figures show an extraordinary 64.2% of 15-to-24-year- olds out of work.

Even the hardest-bitten austerians couldn't ignore the political risk of having such a large group of young people standing idle. It would be surprising if they didn't take to the streets – and in the years to come, it will be surprising if this neglected generation doesn't channel its resentment and anger into demands for a different economic approach.

Governments throughout the advanced economies must confront the fact that, by sucking demand out of the economy today, apparently in order to protect the taxpayers of tomorrow, they may be storing up deep economic and political problems that will impose painful costs of their own.

2 China’s balancing act (Linda Yueh on BBC) China has tried for some time to develop its domestic market and rely less on manufacturing and exports. In its 11th Five Year Plan that spanned 2006-2010, the Chinese government aimed to increase the service sector (shops, education, insurers, etc.) to closer to 50% of GDP - the level seen in other countries at a similar stage of development.

But the reality was that services languished at around 40%. After the 2008 financial crisis, when global exports collapsed, an estimated 20 million factory workers lost their jobs in China. This is the type of scenario which could generate the instability that China wants to avoid.

The government renewed its efforts to boost the domestic market, including the services sector. The initial results are promising. In the first three months of this year, the largest part of the economy was services - not manufacturing - according to the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics. Services accounted for a record 47.8% of GDP, overtaking industrial output at 45.9% for the first time. The figure for industry includes construction, so it certainly highlights how significant the service sector has become.

To be clear, it isn't because factory output is shrinking; in fact, industry has expanded from 45.3% of GDP in 2012. It is just that services grew more rapidly from less than 45% last year. Instead it's the agricultural sector that has shrunk from just over 10% of GDP in 2012 to 6.3%.

3 ‘Drones are here to stay’ (Carla Marinucci in San Francisco Chronicle) Even after his retirement, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is never far from the issues in the headlines. Here’s Panetta, in his own words, on drones:

“Drones are here to stay. No matter what we do, the fact is the use of drones has now become something that just isn’t with the US. Countries around the world are going to make use of them. As the result of 9/11 … it was important for us to go after the leaders of that attack. Where they were located and where they were hiding made it very difficult to send troops in or F-16s in. So this became the most effective way to go after that leadership — and it was very precise.’’

 “Having said that, I do think it’s important to develop more transparency with regard to what is taking place, so that the public is more aware of how to do that. There are two areas … one is what’s called Title 50 which is classified and other is Title 10, which is the military operation, which is more open. So there was a discussion before I left of moving more to the military operations so there would be more transparency. And I think that’s worth considering.”

4 It takes 90 minutes to make an impression (Kim Thompson in San Francisco Chronicle) A survey of 2,000 bosses from the UK reported that employers form perceptions of candidates within 90 seconds. What might be more surprising is what influenced hiring decision makers in the fastest amount of time – your appearance.

Nonverbal language has always driven impressions. However, in a competitive job market it pays to be extra sensitive towards what you wear on an interview as well as how you conduct yourself during the meeting. While it may seem unfair for employers to make a decision first based on your interview attire versus getting to know your contributions, the truth is impressions add to the comfort level that most hiring decision makers seek.

The majority of bosses (65-70 percent) rated the type of clothes as important when determining the next steps with a candidate; employers don’t want clothes to be too trendy and if two candidates are similar, the deciding factor could be how they are dressed. Employers hire candidates who would best represent their company and how you conduct yourself in the interview gives them a snapshot of how you would be as an employee.

Other nonverbal cues such the lack of eye contact, crossing arms, fidgeting and bad posture all add up when an employer is making a hiring decision. The good news is that you have more control over an interview than you might realize and it starts with being aware of what drives first impressions.