Reputations of business people take a hit: Survey

A new survey shows Australians think of nurses, pharmacists and doctors as the most honest and ethical professionals, but advertising people, insurance brokers and (gulp!) journalists are among the lowest-rated professions. The Roy Morgan Image of Professions survey also shows that the global financial crisis has delivered a blow to the perceived honesty and ethics of the business community.

The number of people who says stock-brokers have high or very high honesty and ethics has dropped for stock-brokers by 3% to 15%, while the figures for directors of public companies fell 5% to 17% and business executives dropped 5% to 16%.

Insurance brokers, who dropped 4% to 11%, were seen as one of the least ethical professions, only in front of car salesman (down 1% to just 3%), advertising people (down 3% to 6%) and newspaper journalists (down 5% to 9%).

But it was university lecturers who have experienced the biggest yearly fall, dropping 6% to just 61%. Public pollsters also fell 6% to 23%.

The survey, which questioned over 650 Australians, recorded the highest number of declines since the Image of Professions survey began. Roy Morgan said the deteriorating economy has had an effect on the public’s opinion of several professions.

“Tough economic times invariably result in falls in the Roy Morgan Image of Professions survey. Before 2000, the record number of falls was 14 out of the 21 professions in 1991, during the middle of Australia’s last recession.”

“As has been consistently shown, Australians have the highest regard for health professionals. Nurses (89%), pharmacists (84%), doctors (82%) have the best ratings for ‘ethics’ and ‘honesty’ while dentists (69%) are ranked fifth overall.”