Lobbyists, members of Congress and TV reporters were the least trusted occupations last year, ranking just behind advertisers and used car salesmen, in an annual Gallup survey published Monday.

The polling company found just 30% of adults on average rated “the honesty and ethical standards” of 23 leading professions as “high” or “very high” in 2024. That’s the same as in 2023 and is a record low since Gallup first measured the issue in 1976.

Most respondents ranked as “low” or “very low” the ethics of lobbyists (68%), members of Congress (68%) and TV reporters (55%). Another 50% said the same of advertising practitioners and 47% of car salespeople.

By contrast, most survey participants gave “high” or “very high” ethical ratings to nurses (76%), grade school teachers (61%) and military officers (59%).

“Despite declining public trust in most professions over the past quarter century, the rank order has stayed largely the same, with nurses at the top, followed by grade-school teachers, military officers, pharmacists and medical doctors,” said Lydia Saad, Gallup’s director of U.S. social research. “Meanwhile, in terms of net trust, members of Congress, advertising practitioners, car salespeople and lobbyists have ranked at the bottom.”

Gallup blamed sharp declines in trust for most professions since the pandemic for driving down overall ratings.

Trust in medical doctors, which rose from 65% in 2019 to a historic high of 77% in 2020, fell to 53% last year, the lowest rating in Gallup’s polling trend since the mid-1990s.

Honesty and ethics ratings also dropped below pre-pandemic levels for day care providers, pharmacists, nurses, nursing home operators, judges and clergy.

Gallup conducted a randomized national telephone survey of 1,003 adults on Dec. 2-18. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.