Economists raised their estimate of growth in U.S. real gross domestic product for the fourth quarter, but lowered it for the next two, according to the latest Survey of Professional Forecasters released today by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. In addition, they said next year's annual average unemployment rate will be higher than this year's.

GDP will grow at an annual rate of 2.7% in the fourth quarter, up from a previous estimate of 2.2%, according to the survey. However, economists lowered their estimate of first-quarter growth to 2.3% from 2.5% in an earlier forecast.

They also lowered the second-quarter GDP growth estimate to 2.4% from 2.8% in the previous estimate. The third-quarter 2010 estimate of 2.6% is unchanged from the previous forecast.

Economists also said the unemployment rate will be 10.2% in both the fourth and first quarters. It will start easing in the second quarter, going to 10.1%. However, economists forecast an annual jobless rate of 10.0% for all of 2010, compared with their forecast of 9.3% for 2009.

The average annual unemployment rate will go down to 9.2% in 2011, and it will go down further to 8.3% in 2012, according to the estimates.

The economists estimated the U.S. won't start adding jobs until the second quarter of 2010. The U.S. will lose an average of 159,500 jobs per month in the fourth quarter and lose 35,000 per month in the first quarter of 2010, according to the forecast.