P3O Contract Job Trends

Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices (P3O) Guidance
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring P3O skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 542 533 640
Rank change year-on-year -9 +107 +192
Contract jobs citing P3O 26 26 11
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.079% 0.068% 0.022%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.46% 0.50% 0.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 14 16 9
10th Percentile £338 £409 £339
25th Percentile £413 £444 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £506 £513 £518
Median % change year-on-year -1.22% -0.97% -2.36%
75th Percentile £616 £563 £550
90th Percentile £638 £606 £584
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £475 £400
% change year-on-year +15.79% +18.75% -30.43%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK

P3O falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 5,637 5,165 6,978
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.11% 13.41% 14.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,615 3,071 4,726
10th Percentile £300 £280 £313
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -
75th Percentile £609 £628 £650
90th Percentile £713 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 268 261 251
10th Percentile £13.60 £12.36 £14.03
25th Percentile £16.92 £15.00 £18.60
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £35.63
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -22.82% +54.91%
75th Percentile £60.00 £58.75 £64.13
90th Percentile £80.83 £70.00 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.86 £26.59 £36.75
% change year-on-year +4.78% -27.65% +75.00%

P3O
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing P3O as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for P3O in the UK

P3O
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing P3O.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing P3O

P3O
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing P3O over the 6 months to 18 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for P3O in the UK

P3O
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing P3O.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing P3O

P3O
Top 13 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing P3O within the UK over the 6 months to 18 September 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +16 25 £550 +4.76% 6
UK excluding London +3 22 £550 +15.79% 4
Work from Home +35 13 £550 +22.22% 1
South East +23 8 - - 1
South West +26 4 £550 +4.76% 1
West Midlands -7 4 £425 +30.77%
North of England -11 4 £625 +54.32% 2
Midlands -13 4 £425 +30.77%
North West - 3 £625 - 1
London +11 2 £335 -36.19% 2
Scotland -1 1 £463 +2.78%
Yorkshire -15 1 £445 +9.88% 1
East of England - 1 - - 1

P3O
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 10 (38.46%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (38.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (30.77%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (15.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (3.85%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (3.85%) MS Visio
4 1 (3.85%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (15.38%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 4 (15.38%) Smartsheet
2 3 (11.54%) Power Platform
3 1 (3.85%) Microsoft Copilot
3 1 (3.85%) Power Automate
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (7.69%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (15.38%) JIRA
General
1 15 (57.69%) Finance
2 13 (50.00%) Social Skills
3 6 (23.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 6 (23.08%) Organisational Skills
4 5 (19.23%) Telecoms
5 3 (11.54%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (11.54%) Banking
5 3 (11.54%) Investment Banking
5 3 (11.54%) Presentation Skills
6 2 (7.69%) Front Office
7 1 (3.85%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (3.85%) Legal
7 1 (3.85%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 7 (26.92%) Analyst
2 6 (23.08%) PMO Analyst
3 5 (19.23%) Lead
4 4 (15.38%) Project Planner
4 4 (15.38%) Senior
4 4 (15.38%) Senior PMO
5 3 (11.54%) PMO Specialist
6 2 (7.69%) PMO Lead
6 2 (7.69%) PMO Manager
7 1 (3.85%) Business Intelligence Analyst
7 1 (3.85%) Change Analyst
7 1 (3.85%) Digital Planner
7 1 (3.85%) Excel Analyst
7 1 (3.85%) Governance Analyst
7 1 (3.85%) Governance Manager
7 1 (3.85%) Power BI Analyst
7 1 (3.85%) Senior Analyst
7 1 (3.85%) Senior PMO Analyst
Miscellaneous
1 4 (15.38%) Private Cloud
2 3 (11.54%) PMI
3 1 (3.85%) Onboarding
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (65.38%) PRINCE2
2 15 (57.69%) Project Management
3 11 (42.31%) Portfolio Management
4 9 (34.62%) Change Control
4 9 (34.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 9 (34.62%) Stakeholder Management
5 8 (30.77%) Agile
5 8 (30.77%) Project Governance
5 8 (30.77%) Waterfall
6 7 (26.92%) Continuous Improvement
6 7 (26.92%) Scaled Agile Framework
7 6 (23.08%) Decision-Making
7 6 (23.08%) Project Delivery
8 5 (19.23%) Customer-Centricity
8 5 (19.23%) Dependency Management
9 4 (15.38%) Change Management
9 4 (15.38%) Critical Path Analysis
9 4 (15.38%) Programme Management
10 3 (11.54%) Quality Management
10 3 (11.54%) Strategic Planning
Qualifications
1 8 (30.77%) Degree
2 7 (26.92%) Security Cleared
3 5 (19.23%) APMP
4 4 (15.38%) DV Cleared
4 4 (15.38%) SC Cleared
5 3 (11.54%) PMI Certification
5 3 (11.54%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (65.38%) PMO
2 3 (11.54%) QA
Vendors
1 6 (23.08%) Planview
2 5 (19.23%) IFS
3 2 (7.69%) Microsoft
4 1 (3.85%) Atlassian