A union leader will today pour scorn on claims that the green shoots of economic recovery are appearing with a warning that thousands of workers are still losing their jobs every week.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber will say that a real recovery will only be evident when unemployment starts to fall, decent jobs are created and public services were safe from cuts.

He will tell the opening day of the TUC Congress in Liverpool that bad economic news was not over.

Young people were least to blame for the recession but were suffering the most, Mr Barber will say warning that Britain could not afford to write off a generation to mass unemployment.

"That is why I am so horrified when I hear the Conservatives talk of public expenditure cuts which would turn any progress towards economic recovery into a nose dive back into recession.

"Here in this city which was so scared by the riots of the 1980s, let us remember the crippling economic and social costs of the Tory recessions and let us resolve: never, ever, again."

Mr Barber will sound a note of caution after some economists have started to predict signs of an economic recovery adding that the UK had suffered a financial "melt down".

He said: "The economy has fallen off a cliff. Green shoots mean little when thousands of people a day are joining the dole queue.

"Rising share prices count for little when a million and more young people can't find work.

"It is only when unemployment comes down, only when we create decent jobs that pay decent wages and only when vital public services are safe from cuts that we will be able to talk about a real recovery."

Mr Barber will say he hopes Prime Minister Gordon Brown will give more details about how the Government will help tackle unemployment when he addresses the conference tomorrow.

• 

  Lenny Henry: 'Maybe one day we can have a black Doctor Who'

  As he wins the outstanding newcomer prize at the Evening Standard theatre awards for his role as Othello, Lenny Henry has come a long way from black and white minstrels

  ---

• 

  Spread of the Jedhead

  Jedward, voted off the X-Factor this weekend, are the most obvious proponents of the sticky-uppy look - but the style crosses boundaries of age, gender, sexuality and taste, says Nick Curtis

  ---

Sky in plot to hire students on the cheap

Sky News is currently recruiting students as reporters for its coverage of next year's general election. However, the opportunity doesn't quite seem so appealing

All stories