Economy's focus should now be on creating jobs

China is at a crossroads. It has to choose between rapid economic growth and rapid job creation, for employment, or the lack of it, is now at the center of the deepening global economic crises.

The International Labor Organization's latest data show 51 million jobs could be lost across the world by the end of this year, with the average unemployment rate rising to 6.1 percent. The figures show the jobless rate in the US in February was 8.1 percent, a 25-year high. In Britain and France, the net employment growth was forecast to fall to minus 2 percent in the first quarter. It would be Britain's lowest in 15 years and France's first negative growth in 20 years.

In China, the employment market has become more complicated because the country faces huge pressure from a new development cycle and the acceleration in its industrial and economic structural transformation. Official statistics show more than 17.63 million non-agricultural jobs have been lost since the later half of last year, with 6.64 million people laid off in the services sector and 9.69 million in the manufacturing industry.