The International Labor Organization (ILO) has said that rising global unemployment will spark more protests around the world particularly in Europe and the Middle East. 

In its annual report issued on Monday in Geneva, the United Nations agency said the unstable global economy was likely to create deeper jobs recession as austerity measures adopted by many countries would only worsen the situation, Reuters reported. 

"The next few months will be crucial for avoiding a dramatic downturn in employment and a further significant aggravation of social unrest," Raymond Torres, the main author, wrote in the report. 

The ILO report added that a special study carried out for the report showed popular discontent was spreading, with the risk of more anti-government protests than last year in one-third of the 119 countries where surveys were conducted. 

The UN agency stated that workers, especially young people, are losing faith in their governments and are increasingly getting angrier over the policies which are favoring the rich against the middle class and the poor. 

Torres, a top ILO analyst, argued that pursuing tight fiscal policies that not only restricted job growth but actually undermined present employment levels could only deepen economic woes and dampen prospects for recovery.

The report said global unemployment had reached the highest level ever recorded at over 200 million -- or some 6.2 percent of a total potential workforce of some 3.23 billion. In countries like Spain and Greece it was over 40 percent.

With the international economy stalling again after signs of a recovery in 2010 from the financial and banking crisis of 2008-09, Torres told a news conference, jobless totals were unlikely to diminish any time soon.

To return to the pre-crisis situation of 2007, at least 80 million jobs needed to be created -- many of them in developed countries -- over the next two years, said Torres, director of the ILO's International Institute for Labour Studies.

But current growth trends, particularly in developed economies, suggested that only half this figure, calculated to take into account young people entering the job market for the first time, could be achieved at best.

This suggested that it would take at least five years -- to 2016 or 2017 -- to get back to the employment levels of 2007, the report said.

"We have reached the moment of truth. We have a brief window of opportunity to avoid a major double-dip in unemployment," said Torres in a comment aimed at G20 leaders meeting in Cannes on November 3-4 to discuss the world's economic woes.

The UN agency said a special study carried out for the report showed popular discontent was spreading, with the risk of social unrest higher than last year in one-third of the 119 countries where surveys could be performed.

Workers, especially young people, were losing faith in governments and growing increasingly angry over what they saw as policies favoring the rich.

Torres told his Geneva news conference he hoped G20 governments could adjust policies to "make markets work for jobs" and ensure that loans were available for small and medium-sized businesses to develop their activities.

"Recent trends reflect the fact that not enough attention has been paid to jobs as a key driver of recovery. Countries have increasingly focused on appeasing financial markets," he said in the introduction to the report.

In advanced economies, there had been focus on fiscal austerity and how to help the banks without reforming them or providing a vision of how the economy would recover, he said.

"In some cases, this has been accompanied by measures that have been perceived as a threat to social protection and workers' rights. This will not boost jobs and growth," the ILO analyst said.