The ILO's annual, World of Work Report 2013, has found that five years after the financial crisis, the global employment situation remains uneven, with emerging and developing economies recovering much faster than the majority of advanced economies.
It also showed that based on current trends, employment rates across emerging and developing economies will return to "pre-crisis" levels in 2015. However, in advanced countries employment rates will only return after 2017.
The report warned our "social fabric" has been affected by growing or persistent income gaps between rich and poor. It said, "almost everywhere", young people and women find it difficult to obtain jobs that match their skills and aspirations.
"It is crucial to ensure the spectacular advances in educational attainment in recent years are matched by decent work opportunities for young people. This is a major global challenge for the years to come," ILO said.
In its key report the ILO also warned the potential for social unrest in European Union countries is higher than anywhere else in the world and the already "large gaps between rich and poor", are likely to widen.
It revealed: strikes, work stoppages, street protests and demonstrations had increased in most countries since the economic and financial crisis in 2008.
The risk, it said, "is highest among the EU-27 countries", it increased from 34% in 2006-07 to 46% I 2011-12. The most vulnerable countries were: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy and Portugal.
ILO said: "Overall, the risk of unrest in the EU "is likely to be due to the policy responses to the ongoing sovereign debt crisis and their impact on people's lives and perceptions of well-being.
"This bleak economic scenario has created a fragile social environment as fewer people see opportunities for obtaining a good job and improving their standard of living."
Director of the ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies and the report's author, Raymond Torres, said: "Unemployment will have stayed high for a relatively long period of time and this is causing a real problem with people dropping out of the labour market altogether.
"This not only has adverse consequences on individuals and their families, but also can weaken previously stable societies, as opportunities to advance in a good job and improve one's standard of living become the exception rather than the rule," Torres said.
Those who are finding work often have to settle for shorter hours, temporary posts or jobs unsuited to their training, the report found.
"Almost everywhere, young people and women find it difficult to obtain jobs that match their skills and aspirations," Torres said. "It is crucial to ensure that the spectacular advancements in educational attainment among youth in recent years are matched by commensurate decent work opportunities."
The report also warned that pay inequality is particularly acute in the UK, where depressed investment and low wage growth in the wider population have sparked a "vicious spiral". The chief executives of the UK's 15 largest firms earned on average 238 times the annual earnings of the average worker in 2011, the report noted, and pay for the vast majority of workers has fallen in real terms.
"Stagnating wages are adversely affecting demand, which in turn is dampening real investment, leading to poor job creation - reinforcing weak demand and so on," Torres said.
