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 5 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 541 539 622
Rank change year-on-year -2 +83 +205
Contract jobs citing P3O 29 19 11
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.084% 0.052% 0.024%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.47% 0.39% 0.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 21 9 6
10th Percentile £338 £368 £379
25th Percentile £413 £425 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £465
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -3.23% -25.60%
75th Percentile £550 £538 £549
90th Percentile £638 £564 £619
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £450 £400
% change year-on-year +11.11% +12.50% -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 6,112 4,840 6,607
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.68% 13.25% 14.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,915 2,840 4,420
10th Percentile £304 £275 £308
25th Percentile £402 £390 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £613 £625 £650
90th Percentile £703 £730 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £479 £470 £500
% change year-on-year +1.86% -6.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 300 212 252
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.26 £14.59
25th Percentile £16.50 £15.50 £20.07
Median hourly rate £27.77 £27.09 £39.80
Median % change year-on-year +2.51% -31.93% +53.08%
75th Percentile £60.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.00 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.00 £26.50 £43.50
% change year-on-year -13.21% -39.08% +89.13%

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 5 November 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 5 November 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 +5 28 £488 +8.33% 4
UK excluding London -21 22 £500 +11.11% 4
Work from Home +9 12 £550 +35.80% 1
South East -1 7 £475 +5.56% 2
London +6 5 £450 -12.20% 1
North of England -38 5 £625 +54.32% 2
South West +12 4 £550 -
West Midlands - 4 £425 -
Midlands - 4 £425 -
North West - 4 £625 - 1
Yorkshire -28 1 £445 +9.88% 1
Scotland - 1 £463 -
East of England - 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 13 (44.83%) SharePoint
Applications
1 14 (48.28%) Microsoft Excel
1 14 (48.28%) Microsoft Project
2 9 (31.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (20.69%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (6.90%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (3.45%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 5 (17.24%) Primavera
2 1 (3.45%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (3.45%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 5 (17.24%) Power Platform
2 4 (13.79%) Smartsheet
3 1 (3.45%) Microsoft Copilot
3 1 (3.45%) Power Automate
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (13.79%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 5 (17.24%) JIRA
General
1 19 (65.52%) Finance
2 17 (58.62%) Social Skills
3 4 (13.79%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (13.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 3 (10.34%) Banking
4 3 (10.34%) Investment Banking
4 3 (10.34%) Organisational Skills
4 3 (10.34%) Presentation Skills
4 3 (10.34%) Telecoms
5 2 (6.90%) Front Office
5 2 (6.90%) Public Sector
6 1 (3.45%) Influencing Skills
6 1 (3.45%) Legal
Job Titles
1 12 (41.38%) Analyst
2 10 (34.48%) PMO Analyst
3 6 (20.69%) Lead
4 5 (17.24%) Senior
5 4 (13.79%) Project Planner
5 4 (13.79%) Senior PMO
6 3 (10.34%) PMO Lead
7 2 (6.90%) PMO Manager
7 2 (6.90%) PMO Support Analyst
7 2 (6.90%) Project Analyst
7 2 (6.90%) Project Support Analyst
7 2 (6.90%) Senior Analyst
8 1 (3.45%) Business Intelligence Analyst
8 1 (3.45%) Change Analyst
8 1 (3.45%) Digital Planner
8 1 (3.45%) Governance Analyst
8 1 (3.45%) Governance Manager
8 1 (3.45%) QA Leader
8 1 (3.45%) Risk Analyst
8 1 (3.45%) Senior Risk Analyst
Miscellaneous
1 4 (13.79%) Private Cloud
2 3 (10.34%) PMI
3 1 (3.45%) Onboarding
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (68.97%) PRINCE2
2 15 (51.72%) Project Management
3 9 (31.03%) Agile
3 9 (31.03%) Portfolio Management
3 9 (31.03%) Project Delivery
3 9 (31.03%) Waterfall
4 8 (27.59%) Programme Management
4 8 (27.59%) Scaled Agile Framework
4 8 (27.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 8 (27.59%) Stakeholder Management
5 7 (24.14%) Change Control
6 6 (20.69%) Dependency Management
7 5 (17.24%) Continuous Improvement
7 5 (17.24%) Document Management
7 5 (17.24%) Project Governance
7 5 (17.24%) Workshop Facilitation
8 4 (13.79%) Business Intelligence
8 4 (13.79%) Critical Path Analysis
8 4 (13.79%) Decision-Making
8 4 (13.79%) Programme Delivery
Programming Languages
1 1 (3.45%) Korn
Qualifications
1 13 (44.83%) Degree
2 9 (31.03%) Security Cleared
3 5 (17.24%) DV Cleared
3 5 (17.24%) SC Cleared
4 4 (13.79%) PMI Certification
4 4 (13.79%) PMP
5 3 (10.34%) APMP
6 1 (3.45%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (75.86%) PMO
2 4 (13.79%) QA
3 1 (3.45%) GRC
3 1 (3.45%) ISO 31000
Vendors
1 7 (24.14%) Microsoft
1 7 (24.14%) Planview
2 3 (10.34%) IFS
3 1 (3.45%) Atlassian
3 1 (3.45%) Oracle
3 1 (3.45%) SAP