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 contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 640 527 539
Rank change year-on-year -113 +12 +115
Contract jobs citing P3O 27 25 26
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.050% 0.076% 0.067%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.29% 0.45% 0.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 22 13 17
10th Percentile £328 £338 £412
25th Percentile £363 £413 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £463 £500
Median % change year-on-year -13.51% -7.50% -4.53%
75th Percentile £466 £638 £563
90th Percentile £498 - £605
UK excluding London median daily rate £400 £550 £500
% change year-on-year -27.27% +10.00% +2.56%

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 9,228 5,605 5,204
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.25% 17.07% 13.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,907 3,594 3,214
10th Percentile £325 £285 £290
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £605 £625
90th Percentile £703 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £480
% change year-on-year +3.58% -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 568 266 311
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.60 £11.07
25th Percentile £17.72 £17.38 £14.42
Median hourly rate £36.07 £28.18 £25.77
Median % change year-on-year +28.00% +9.37% -26.39%
75th Percentile £70.00 £61.99 £55.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £85.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.79 £25.08 £25.00
% change year-on-year +46.70% +0.30% -28.57%

P3O
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing P3O relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

P3O job vacancy trend 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 20 August 2026.

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 12 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 20 August 2026. 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 -125 26 £400 -19.60% 7
London -59 17 £440 +31.34% 2
Work from Home -64 10 £440 -20.00% 5
UK excluding London -125 10 £400 -27.27% 6
North of England -56 4 £400 -36.00% 3
East of England -17 3 £375 -
North West -37 2 £388 -38.00% 1
Yorkshire -39 2 £400 -10.11% 2
Scotland -14 1 £350 -24.32%
South West -40 1 £775 +40.91%
West Midlands -57 1 - -
Midlands -58 1 - -

P3O
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 2 (7.41%) SharePoint
2 1 (3.70%) Confluence
Applications
1 19 (70.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (44.44%) Microsoft Project
3 11 (40.74%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (33.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (11.11%) Changepoint
2 1 (3.70%) CA PPM
Cloud Services
1 4 (14.81%) Dynamics 365
2 3 (11.11%) Microsoft 365
2 3 (11.11%) Power Platform
3 1 (3.70%) Azure
3 1 (3.70%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (3.70%) Microsoft Copilot
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (11.11%) Power BI
2 2 (7.41%) Tableau
3 1 (3.70%) QlikView
Development Applications
1 5 (18.52%) JIRA
General
1 16 (59.26%) Finance
2 9 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (25.93%) Social Skills
4 4 (14.81%) Public Sector
5 3 (11.11%) Organisational Skills
5 3 (11.11%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (3.70%) Banking
6 1 (3.70%) Influencing Skills
6 1 (3.70%) Law
6 1 (3.70%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 8 (29.63%) Lead
1 8 (29.63%) PMO Lead
2 7 (25.93%) Senior
2 7 (25.93%) Senior PMO
3 5 (18.52%) Analyst
3 5 (18.52%) PMO Analyst
4 4 (14.81%) Senior Analyst
4 4 (14.81%) Senior PMO Analyst
4 4 (14.81%) Support Officer
5 2 (7.41%) PMO Manager
5 2 (7.41%) PMO Officer
6 1 (3.70%) Consultant
6 1 (3.70%) DV Cleared Project Manager
6 1 (3.70%) Junior Project Manager
6 1 (3.70%) PMO Consultant
6 1 (3.70%) PMO Coordinator
6 1 (3.70%) Programme Analyst
6 1 (3.70%) Programme Support Analyst
6 1 (3.70%) Project Coordinator
6 1 (3.70%) Support Analyst
Miscellaneous
1 4 (14.81%) Greenfield Project
2 3 (11.11%) Virtual Team
3 1 (3.70%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (3.70%) Management Information System
3 1 (3.70%) Onboarding
3 1 (3.70%) PMI
3 1 (3.70%) Self-Motivation
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (88.89%) PRINCE2
2 16 (59.26%) Stakeholder Management
3 13 (48.15%) Agile
4 9 (33.33%) Budget Management
4 9 (33.33%) Portfolio Management
4 9 (33.33%) Project Management
4 9 (33.33%) Waterfall
5 8 (29.63%) Project Delivery
6 7 (25.93%) Budgeting and Forecasting
7 6 (22.22%) Programme Governance
8 5 (18.52%) Continuous Improvement
8 5 (18.52%) Data Analysis
8 5 (18.52%) ERP
8 5 (18.52%) Project Governance
8 5 (18.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 4 (14.81%) Budgeting
9 4 (14.81%) Change Control
9 4 (14.81%) Programme Management
9 4 (14.81%) Risk Management
10 3 (11.11%) Business Case
Programming Languages
1 1 (3.70%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 11 (40.74%) Degree
1 11 (40.74%) Security Cleared
2 10 (37.04%) PMP
2 10 (37.04%) SC Cleared
3 9 (33.33%) PMI Certification
4 3 (11.11%) CTC Cleared
5 1 (3.70%) APMG
5 1 (3.70%) DV Cleared
5 1 (3.70%) PRINCE2 Certification
5 1 (3.70%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (100.00%) PMO
2 1 (3.70%) Data Quality
2 1 (3.70%) QA
Vendors
1 16 (59.26%) Microsoft
2 6 (22.22%) Planview
3 3 (11.11%) Oracle
4 1 (3.70%) ServiceNow