The following are three Chinese economic news in brief.

TWO-THIRDS OF COMPANIES IN EAST CHINA TO HAVE DIFFICULTY HIRING WORKERS

Sixty-seven percent of companies in the eastern province of Jiangsu expect to have difficulty recruiting new workers this spring, a survey showed Thursday.

This highlights worsening labor shortages in the rich coastal regions as China's economy continues to boom, according to the survey released by the Jiangsu Provincial Labor and Employment Management Center.

Demand for labor has returned to pre-financial crisis levels, it said. Each company planned to hire 175 new workers on average, double the amount companies planned to recruit at the beginning of last year.

DONGFENG PEUGEOT CITROEN AUTO SETS NEW MONTHLY SALES RECORD IN JAN.

Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Co. Thursday said it set a new monthly sales record last month selling 41,927 cars.

Sales at the joint venture between China's Dongfeng Motor Corp and French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen were above 40,000 units for a third consecutive month.

The sales revenue stood at 4.2 billion yuan (637.6 million U.S. dollars), an increase of 12 percent from the same month last year.

TIANJIN PORT REPORTS RECORD JAN. THROUGHPUT

Northern Chinese port of Tianjin handled a record volume of cargo and containers in January, the company which runs the port said in a statement Thursday.

The port handled 35.6 million tonnes of cargo, up 11.8 percent from a year earlier, it said.

And, it reported a container throughput of 927,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).