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Almost 60 percent of financial professionals think the U.S. economy will continue to slow at least into the fourth quarter, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Association for Financial Professionals of Bethesda.

Women corporate practitioners were slightly more optimistic than men, with 56 percent of women seeing slowdowns through this year, compared with 63 percent of men.

Real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 3.3 percent in the second quarter of 2008. First-quarter GDP grew 0.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007, when it fell 0.2 percent from the prior quarter, according to U.S. Commerce Department figures.

The second-quarter rebound reflected the impact of stimulus checks sent to taxpayers, which largely ended in July. Some economists predict slower growth in the third quarter, with contraction possible in the fourth quarter.

Only 10 percent of respondents to the 2008 Women in Finance survey think that conditions have already hit bottom. Some 73 percent said their companies or organizations did not have to cut employees in the past six months, but 42 percent have added more job responsibilities as a result of the slowdown.

The e-mail survey was distributed in early August to corporate practitioner members nationwide, along with representatives from banks, vendors and consultants. There were 571 responses from corporate practitioners and 649 from banks, vendors and consultants, with about equal participation between women and men.