More than 700,000 public sector workers could find themselves out of work due to public spending cuts, claims a new TUC report.

The report says that a cut of 10% of public sector staff would result in 2.9% of the UK workforce losing their jobs, with Merseyside and Wales particularly hard hit.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber says: “Public spending cuts would provoke a double-quick double-dip recession. Unemployment could exceed 4m and it would take many years before there was any chance of returning to anything like full employment. That would scar for life a whole generation of young people.”