NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Economists are again reining in estimates for hiring and economic growth, saying companies are cautious amid rising oil prices, a newspaper reported Thursday.

A panel of economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal expect the economy to add 182,000 jobs a month over the next year. That's down from an estimate in August of 194,000 jobs a month and one in May of 207,000 jobs a month.

The group of 55 economists also trimmed their forecasts for economic growth to 3.6 percent in the third quarter and 4 percent in the fourth. In June, forecasts came in at an average rate of 4.3 percent over the balance of the year, according to the report.

"Businesses have been through a lot over the last few years, and many of them don't have a great deal of tolerance for uncertainty," Stephen Gallagher of Societe Generale in New York told the paper.

Although the group has trimmed its targets, the forecasts still call for faster growth than the economy has posted recently.

Despite the views that the economy is emerging from its summer quagmire, the economists expect inflation to remain tame.

The group sees the consumer price index unchanged at 3 percent in Nov. 2004 and at 2.3 percent by May 2005, according to the paper.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure economic performance, grew at 2.8 percent in the second quarter. In August, the economy added 144,000 jobs after anemic growth below 100,000 in the previous two reports.

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If the pace of job growth moderates at 100,000 jobs a month, economists believe the Federal Reserve may take a break from its recent trend of lifting rates, according to the Journal.

However, most believe that interest rates will top out at 2 percent by the end of the year and 2.75 percent by mid-2005, the paper reported.