New research from the ONS suggests that the months of March, April and May saw as many as 600,000 workers cut from UK payrolls.
Work-related benefits claims saw a meteoric 126 per cent rise to 2.8 million in the same period.
Deputy national statistician for economic statistics at the ONS, Jonathan Athow, said "the slowdown in the economy is now visibly hitting the labour market, especially in terms of hours worked."
Although the unemployment rate hovered around four per cent in the three months to April - thanks in no small part to Rishi Sunak's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme - weekly hours in the same period dropped by nine per cent, or 94.2 million hours.
Such a drop is understandably unprecedented - and it saw the total number of hours worked in the quarter drop below one billion.
PAYE estimates echo the ONS findings, reporting a drop of 612,000 in workers on payroll for the March to May period.
When it came to recovery, the chief economist at Big Four firm KPMG, Yael Seflin, said he expected hiring to be "put on hold for some time" - painting something of a bleak picture for the weeks and months ahead.
