AN “UNPRECEDENTED” drop in GDP announced today sparked calls for mass action to protect jobs and wages.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that GDP fell by a staggering 20.4 per cent in April, when the lockdown was in full effect and saw the majority of businesses stop trading.

Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician at the ONS, said the fall was “really unprecedented” — but that when March and April are taken together the economy shrank by 25 per cent.

He added: “The biggest fall we have seen before was just over 2 per cent – so, it’s 10 times the size of the largest fall we have seen before the coronavirus. Virtually every sector has been shrinking.”

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady urged the government to “work closely with unions and business” to take quick action to “stop deep damage becoming lasting damage.”

She suggested a national recovery plan that prioritises the creation and protection of jobs, adding that Britain would “work its way out of recession” with more people in employment.

Ms O’Grady added: “We need targeted support for hard-hit sectors of the economy, and a jobs guarantee to help those who do lose work.”

It comes after new TUC research published yesterday found that  two sectors of the economy — “accommodation and food” and “arts, entertainment and recreation” — were more likely to shed jobs.

People’s Assembly national secretary Laura Pidcock said that unless there was a huge movement pushback on jobs and pay the government would force the cost onto working people’s shoulders.

“The clapping of key workers a distant memory in the government’s mind, it will try to proceed with wage freezes, cuts to public expenditure, a hands-off approach to mass redundancies and of course a return to austerity,” she told the Morning Star.

But “instead they could create millions of jobs, they could grow and invest their way to recovery. What comes next for working people will be a political choice and it will be our pressure and our activism which can shape the course of history.”

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said that the government needs a “long-term strategy” beyond the coronavirus furlough scheme for workers and the self-employed, and said different sectors should be eased off the scheme at different rates.

She warned that Britain’s economy was shrinking faster than those of comparable nations, citing a report published on Thursday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Ms Dodds also urged the government to “get a grip” on the coronavirus test track and trace system to get it “working properly” so the lockdown can be lifted quicker.

PM Boris Johnson, in response to the ONS statistics, said that he was “not surprised” by the news and insisted that the economy would “bounce back” when businesses gradually start to open up. He promised government investment to help the economy over the coming weeks.

The statistics come as the Commons transport select committee published a report slamming British Airways’s treatment of its workforce “a national disgrace.”

It accused the airline of a “calculated attempt to take advantage” of the crisis by cutting up to 12,000 jobs and downgrading terms and conditions of the bulk of its remaining employees.

BA insisted it was doing everything it can to “sustain the maximum number of jobs.”

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “BA is fooling nobody. Never before has the country witnessed such wholesale mistreatment of a UK workforce and such brutal industrial thuggery.”

Other aviation companies have also announced thousands of redundancies, including Easyjet, Ryanair, Virgin Atlantic, Rolls Royce and Airbus.