The US economy looks stronger than it did three months ago, according to the new “Second Quarter 2018 Survey of Professional Forecasters” report released today by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The report is based on a survey of 36 economists.

Forecasters revised upward their median forecast of US GDP growth for the remainder of the year, although the median full-year forecast of 2.8% for this year was unchanged from the first-quarter report.

In addition, the median forecast of unemployment rate calls for it to go down to 3.7% in the second quarter of 2019. The jobless rate was 3.9% in April, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics

New payrolls expected per month were revised upward for the rest of the year in the second-quarter survey, according to the median forecast, and the payroll jobs per month are expected to be higher in 2019.

Click on chart to enlarge.