In light of the recently observed $8\times {10}^5$ barn thermal neutron absorption cross section of zirconium-88, this work investigates the rate (isomeric yield ratio) of metastable zirconium-89 production and resulting implications for ongoing measurements around zirconium-88 neutron absorption. The metastable state of zirconium-89 resides at 588 keV above the ground state with a half-life of 4.2 min. A $5\mu \mathrm{Ci}$ zirconium-88 sample was irradiated for 10 min in the core of a TRIGA Mark II nuclear research reactor and measured with a high purity germanium detector starting 3 min after irradiation. The isomeric yield ratio was measured to be $74.9\pm 0.6\%$.

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• Isomer decays
• Neutron physics
• Nuclear transition rates
• Nucleon induced nuclear reactions
• 59 ≤ A ≤ 89