European governments, in particular, should adopt more worker- friendly approaches in dealing with fiscal austerity, according to the agency's "World of Work Report 2012" that was released here and at its headquarters in Geneva Sunday. 

Such a change in policy could result in adding around two million jobs in the advanced economies over the next year, as opposed to only about 800,000 if current approaches persist, according to the report. 

Persistently high rates of unemployment in the Arab world and Africa also put those regions at high risk of social unrest, according to the 128-page report, which noted that most of Latin America and some Asian countries have emerged in relatively better shape in that respect. 

The report comes at a critical moment, particularly for key advanced economies where pending elections appear to offer stark choices between candidates and parties that favor very different approaches yawning fiscal deficits and high unemployment. 

In France, for example, the current front-runner, the Socialist Party's Francois Holland, favor more worker-friendly policies than the more austere approach taken by the incumbent president, Nicolas Sarkozy. 

And in the United States, the all-but-certain Republican challenger to President Barack Obama, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, has endorsed his party's proposals for sharp cuts to social and government jobs programs, combined with reductions in already-low tax rates for corporations and wealthy individuals. 

The report charged that the combination of fiscal austerity and tougher labor market reforms - or de-regulation - adopted by many advanced economies, especially in the Eurozone, have proved devastating to job creation, in ...