Sorry, but the recruiting system bothers me a lot. I played every release in the past year and a lot of svns, but its always the same: I want to check thru the strory quickly, so I ignore a lot of missions and if I start, then I never retry no matter the losses. So quickly I'll end up with no more soldiers and some unhappy governments and then .... nothing happens. Game keeps on running and I never get any more recruits, but a lot of cash from producing.
I really think there should be something like "androids" in Apocalypse. Expensive troopers which are not good, and can never become good, but can always be hired.
My suggestion: Call them "merceneries" and just fill the rest of the "recruit soldier" window with them... There needs to be some cannon fodder, since its highly unlikely that there are no people willing to fight for money.