Business

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --   Can you remember the last time you were in a record store?  Chances are good it’s been a while.

Music retailing has been decimated in recent years by the advent of audio streaming and music piracy. So it came as something of a surprise to learn that a new record store opened recently here in Middle Tennessee.

Grant Polston and his wife Sandy are co-owners of Little Shop of Records, located just off the square in downtown Murfreesboro.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  -- Following a sharp drop last fall, consumer confidence is on the rise in Middle Tennessee.

Dr. Tim Graeff directs the Office of Consumer Research at Middle Tennessee State University, and he's just completed his latest quarterly survey of mid-state consumer confidence.

“At the end of January we found an increase in consumers optimism. Consumers do seem to be a little more optimistic. They have little bit more positive outlook on the economy. Not just the current economy, but the future of the economy.”

MUFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  Goodwill Industries is sponsoring a career fair in Murfreesboro on Wednesday to fill 100 local jobs.

Goodwill’s job placement agency, Goodwill Career Solutions, is sponsoring the fair to fill temp-to-hire positions with the company Metro Industrial to fill jobs in Rutherford and Wilson counties.

Positions to be filled include order pullers, production workers and forklift operators.

Goodwill’s Shawna Espy says applicants need to come prepared.

The MTSU Women in STEM Center is using a $10,000 grant from the American Association of University Women Foundation to eventually expose at least 1,000 Southern girls to career possibilities in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

The AAUW Foundation awarded the 2012-13 Community Action Grant last year, with some of the funds used for upcoming events at MTSU, including the Feb. 6-8 Girls Raised in Tennessee Science (GRITS) Collaborative Project Annual Conference.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  -- The Tennessee Department of Labor has released the county level unemployment numbers for December and Williamson County is once again reporting the state’s lowest jobless rate.

Williamson County’s unemployment rate in December stood at five percent, well below the state average of 7.6 percent.

Williamson County routinely reports the states best jobless numbers and also routinely ranks as one of the top counties in the nation for job creation.