GORILLAS IN THE MIDST

Stroll virtually through the San Antonio Zoo's wild new gorilla habitat

Congo Falls will be home to eight gorillas.

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The San Antonio Zoo is giving animal lovers a chance to climb with the gorillas, at least digitally. The Alamo City attraction recently released a flythrough video showing the full scope of its upcoming Congo Falls, an immersive installation that will bring the primates back to the park for the first time in 30 years.

The video, though digitally created, offers the most complete look at the upcoming exhibit yet. Once completed later in 2025, the habitat will be home to eight western lowland gorillas split between a bachelor group of four males and a family unit of one silverback and three females.

Congo Falls will be spread over two acres with three distinct viewing areas and a 30-foot waterfall with a pool for beating the summer heat. The Mays Family Silverback Peak — a more than 70-foot-tall tower — is billed as the tallest of its type in the world.

The habitat was designed not only for the animal’s comfort, but to give viewers 360-degree peeks into gorilla behavior. Overhead walkways are provided for both zoo guests and the primates, offering stunning views of the troops in action.

Gorillas were once a fixture of the San Antonio Zoo, first introduced in the ‘50s. The last gorilla before the current crew, Mopie, was moved to Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian Zoo in 1990, and its habitat was used for smaller primates.

"Congo Falls is more than a habitat, it's a symbol of our commitment to animal wellbeing, incredible guest experiences, and being world leaders in innovative zoological habitat design," said Tim Morrow, President and CEO of San Antonio Zoo, in a release. " We are excited for the guests that visit us from San Antonio, South Texas, and around the world to once again be able to view and learn more about this incredible species at San Antonio Zoo."

You can watch the aerial video below.

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Jobs report

Texas ranks as No. 7 best state to find a job, says new report

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

It's easier to get hired in Texas than in nearly any other state.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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