UTC adds cybersecurity degree program in 2023
A new Bachelor of Applied Science in Information Technology in Cybersecurity degree program at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will begin with the spring 2023 semester, UTC officials announced Thursday.
About 6,700 cybersecurity jobs are open in Tennessee -- including 300-plus in Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia -- and employment demand is expected to grow 22% to 24% in the next five years, according to UTC.
This new program will prepare students to assess the security needs of computer and network systems, recommend safeguard solutions and manage the implementation, auditing and maintenance of security devices, systems and procedures.
"We are eager to collaborate with our community partners and community colleges throughout Tennessee and the Southeast region to address a major workforce need," said Jerold L. Hale, UTC provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, in a statement.
Food City to open Cartersville grocery
A week after breaking ground for a new grocery story in Kimball, Tennessee, as it expands into Marion County, Food City plans to open its first grocery store in Bartow County, Georgia, next Wednesday when it opens a 59,000-square-foot supermarket in Cartersville.
The new store will include a full-service bakery and deli, a pharmacy and floral shop. A Food City Gas 'N Go fuel center is expected to open by next summer across the street.
"We are excited to be joining the Bartow County retail community and look forward to serving the residents of Cartersville and Bartow County," Food City President Steven C. Smith said in an announcement of their newest store. "We're pleased to have hired over 250 associates, the vast majority of which have come from the local community."
The new store in one of at least eight planned by the Abington, Virginia-based K-VA-T Food Stores, the parent company of Food City, which operates 145 company-owned stores in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama.
Amazon pauses hiring amid economic worries
Amazon is pausing hiring for its corporate workforce, the latest move by the company to cut costs amid worries about the wider economic environment.
Company executives have decided to halt "new incremental hires" for the entire corporate workforce and anticipate the pause to be in place for a few months, Beth Galetti, the senior vice president of people experience and technology, said in a memo posted on Amazon's website on Thursday.
The company "will continue to monitor what we're seeing in the economy and the business to adjust as we think makes sense," Galetti said. "We're facing an unusual macro-economic environment, and want to balance our hiring and investments with being thoughtful about this economy."
Depending on the business, Galetti noted Amazon will hire backfills to replace employees who leave the company. In some areas, it will continue to hire people incrementally.
In the past few weeks, Amazon had paused hiring for the corporate side of its retail division and some of its other businesses. The company has also gotten rid of subsidiary fabric.com and shuttered its Amazon Care health service. Galetti said the Seattle-based retail and tech giant still intends to hire a "meaningful number of people" next year.
— Compiled by Dave Flessner