Austerity Osborne sits on jobless forecast

UK Chancellor George Osborne's austerity budget will “result in the loss of up to 1.3m jobs across the economy over the next five years,” the Guardian leads. According to a Treasury assessment leaked to the London daily, the most draconian cuts in public spending since World War II will lead to “between 500,000 and 600,000 jobs going in the public sector and between 600,000 and 700,000 disappearing in the private sector by 2015.” The chancellor has so far failed to mention the impact his emergency measures will have on the labour market, the Guardian notes. The Treasury assumes that “the private sector will create 2.5m jobs in the next five years”.