When it comes to honesty and integrity, how would you rate your real estate agent? How about your builder or remodeler?

If you participated in the most recent Gallup poll on the ethics of people in different professions, you'd give them only an average grade. Indeed, of the 21 professions tested in the survey conducted just before Thanksgiving, they ranked 10th and 11th respectively.

They didn't do nearly as well as nurses, which continue to be rated most positively -- and by a substantial margin. But they ranked far better than telemarketers and car salesmen, both of which held down the bottom of this year's list -- as they do almost every year.

Builders and agents even did better than lawyers and lawmakers. But -- and this is worth mentioning -- they were a notch below journalists.

Gallup questions folks about what they think about the veracity and character of various professions every year. It's been a while since realty agent and contractors were on the list, which changes with each survey. But if memory serves, the latest poll rates them higher than ever.

Bankers, a wide field which presumably includes mortgage lenders, did well, too. As a group, bankers have received ratings as low as 26 percent. But this time around, they scored an impressive 40 percent rating.

In this year's poll of 1,002 adults over age 18, nurses had the best marks, with 82 percent of the respondents giving them a high or very high rating. This should comes as no surprise: At 80 percent, nurses have averaged the highest honesty ratings since Gallup first asked about the profession in 1999.

That is significantly higher than any other profession that has been asked about in more than one survey. The next highest averages belong to military officers (69 percent), veterinarians (66 percent), pharmacists (65 percent) and high school teachers (64 percent).

For what it's worth, car salesman have been at the bottom of the heap in nearly every survey since it was first undertaken in 1976, displaced only by politicians in '76 and telemarketers in 2002 and again in 2005. Car salesmen and telemarketers have the lowest historical ratings of all the professions studied.

Here's how the various professions stacked up this year's telephone survey:

Honesty and Ethics Ratings (by percentage of very low to very high)

Source: The Gallup Organization

Published: January 4, 2006

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