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 a real recovery will 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 suffering the most, Mr Barber will say, warning that Britain could not afford to write off a generation to mass unemployment.

"I am horrified when I hear Conservatives talk of expenditure cuts which would turn any progress towards economic recovery into a nose dive," he will say.