Are you looking to venture into job scraping but do not know how to get it done? Come in now and discover all you need to know including the best job scrapers you can use to get it done easily.
One of the popular applications of web scraping is the extraction of job adverts from websites. This is known as job scraping. There is just a whole lot going on in the employment market. Every day new jobs are posted online. Some of these jobs are on the companies’ career pages, some via social media handles, and on specialized job boards like LinkedIn and Indeed.
How do you keep tabs on job openings you are interested in? Doing this manually can be tiring and an unending activity that will take up valuable time. There has got to be a better way and job scraping it is.
If you are interested in scraping job openings online, then this article has been written for you. We will provide you with all you need to start scraping jobs from online sources. This will be useful to you as a job seeker or even the owner of an automated job site that scrapes other job boards to update its own database.
Who Should Be Interested In Job Scraping?
There are basically 3 classes of people that should be interested in scraping jobs. Let's take a look at these and how job scraping is beneficial to each of these groups of people.
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Job Board Owners
Many job boards out there are automated. They visit millions of websites on the Internet looking for job opportunities to scrape and post on their platforms. Being going automated, they are able to scale up and post as many jobs as available on their sources without getting tired or delaying as humans will.
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Job Seekers
Those looking for jobs can automate the process. You do not have to look through tens of jobs daily to get the one you one to apply for. You can use a job scraper to find openings that meet your specific requirement and notify you. If you are a coder and even have advanced skills, you can even automate the application process so that you only get to be involved when you are considered a prospect by a potential employer.
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Researchers
The last category of people is researchers. Researchers who are interested in data related to job openings and statistics. These ones mostly focus on job sites rather than individual companies.
How Does Job Scraping Work?
The working mechanism of job scraping is the same as regular web scraping. You need a web scraper that gets the job done and the web scraper can be as complex or as simple as the feature you need. Generally, there are different phases to job scraping. You need to first define your target site where you want to scrape the jobs from.
The options here are endless. You can either use general job boards like LinkedIn and Indeed or niched based job boards for your specific industry. You can also target the career pages of specific companies of interest.
With this, you can then decide on the kind of jobs you will be scraping. Will you be scraping jobs from whole categories or jobs with specific keywords? You could also use Regular Expressions (RegEx). With this, you can develop the web scraper or use an already-made web scraper that meets you to configure it the way you want.
The web scraper will visit your target sites, looking for jobs that match your requirements. If it gets any, it extracts the job and saves it in a database or file for you to make use of. Some of them are built to notify you by email so you can act timely.
Challenges of Job Scraping
As with other rewarding tasks, job scraping can be challenging. But what are the challenges you can face during job scraping? Let's take a look at a few of them below.
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Anti-Scraping Systems
One of the number one challenges of scraping sites is the anti-scraping systems of websites. Most websites do not like being scraped and have systems in place to block websites. LinkedIn for example is notorious for making it difficult to scrape data from its sites.
For this reason, you need to integrate anti-blocking logic and tools in your job scrapers. Tools like residential proxies and captcha solvers will help a long way in helping you avoid anti-scraping systems of websites.
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Website structures Changes
Web scrapers are designed according to the structure of their target web pages. When the webpage structure changes, the job scraper breaks and stops scraping. This is one of the challenges as you d not just develop a job scraper one and use it anytime you want. You will need to keep maintaining it and keep making changes as the structure of your target web page changes.
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Unreliable Data
Also important is the fact that many of the job boards post the wrong jobs. Some of them publish jobs without verification. This means that fit you scrape the same job, the detail won’t be helpful.
This is the reason you need to have multiple job sites you scrape from in other to have more reliable data to work with. Even with verification, there is a chance you’ll still end up with the wrong data as many of the job sites actually copy from each other.
Methods of Job Scraping
Below are some of the ways you can scrape jobs from online sources.
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Custom develop a web scraping tool
Making the decision to build and install your own job scraping tool is a big step. However, developing a tool like this in-house with your own tech team and resources comes with its own pros and cons.
As such, starting a scraper from scratch can be tough, even if you hire professionals. So, if you still want to build your own job scraper, it is important to pay attention to a few things. You may want to invest in a data storage center since this could be a major challenge.
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Use an already-made job scraper
Another approach you can take as regards the method of job scraping is to make use of already-developed scraping systems. They are a good option, especially for small companies. As such, there are many helpful pieces of web scraping software that are designed for non-technical people to fetch data from the web. Some of these scraping tools are either free or offer free trials with flexible monthly subscriptions ranging from $30 to $200. We will discuss a few of these in the later part of this article.
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Delegate Job Scraping to a data professional
Again, if you cannot build your own job scraping tool and do not have the time to use an already developed job scraping software on your own, you have the option of giving it to a professional in the field to help you out. This is undoubtedly the best way that one can think if you are searching for options for scraping job data. Some well-known names for this are Zyte, Propellum, etc.
Best Job Scraping Tools in the Market
This section has been written for those willing to use the already-made scrapers in the market. Below are some of the job scrapers you can use.
1. Bright Data Job Scraper — Overall Best Job Scraping Tool
Bright Data is arguably one of the web data extraction companies out there. it does provide a job scraping tool which is considered one of the best in the market right now. With the job scraper provided by Bright Data, you can collect job details from popular job boards such as Indeed, LinkedIn, and even Craiglist, among others.
This will help you find new job opportunities, keep track of hiring trends, and even generate leads from the right prospects. With this, you do not even need to download any software as everything is done online. you can define where the data is saved and the frequency of scraping. Pricing is based on a Pay-As-You-Go model.
2. Apify Job Scrapers — Best for Coders
Apify is a web automation platform with modular web scrapers and automation tools. It does have a good number of web scrapers geared toward job sites. Some of the top sites of the target includes Indeed, LinkedIn, Crunchbase, Upwork, Glassdoor, RemoteOK, and many others. Even though non-coders could use this from its web interface, the Apify platform is a platform for coders.
It provides an SDK for NodeJS and Python developers which makes it easier to use these scrapers programmatically. the pricing depends on the specific scraper you use.As a new user, you are allowed to use the service for 3 days for free before the subscription for their paid plans.
3. Octoparse — Best for Non-Coders
Job scraping can be quite tedious, especially if the job site is strict and requires some extra coding time. Again, Apify can help you do that, but if you are not ready to go through the hassle of extra coding, then Octaparse is the best tool for you. Thankfully, you do not need to have any coding knowledge to start using Octoparse for scraping.
Octoparse offers an anti-detect mode that helps you to just copy and paste your target link to scrape job sites with a simple point-and-click. It also offers advanced functions like IP rotation, scheduled scraping, CAPTCHA solving, and an API to help you scrape job sites with ease, especially those that may be proving difficult.
4. Parsehub — Best Free Job Scraper
Parsehub is a very good job scraping tool to consider if you are below the budget for paid tools like Bright Data Collector and Apify. It’s totally free and can arguably be said to be the one tool for scraping reliable job listings and company details from job sites at no cost.
Just like Octoparse, you do not need any coding skills to scrape job data on Parsehub. Since it is a GUI-based tool, Parsehub also has a point-and-click feature that makes scraping job data easy. I must admit, for a free tool, Parsehub is a big deal when it comes to scraping big job sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, and Freelancer.
5. Apiscrapy — Best For Collecting Near-Real-Time Job Data
Apiscrapy is a near-real-time job scraping tool that helps scrape job postings from job sites on a large scale. One unique thing about this tool is that it is an AI-based data extraction tool. Hence, with Apiscrapy’s AI algorithms, you are able to effectively crawl websites and gather job data in no time. It does this by using a fast filtering algorithm.
For scraping your desired job data, Apiscrapy is quite easy to use and has a well-structured data delivery. You can export the scraped data in JSON, Excel, CSV, and XML formats for later analysis. This tools AI-augmented automation, many companies that rely on AI technology for their data scraping can save up to 40% to 70%. It reduces the need for setting up scraping infrastructure.
6. Scrape.work — Specialized Job Feed Aggregator
You can quickly and easily collect data from other websites using the website scrape.work. You can input the URL of the website you wish to scrape utilizing the website's user-friendly interface. A significant set of scraping that this program excels at is job data. For job feeds, it has a dedicated scrapper.
This application makes it simple to advertise positions, profile candidates, and categories you may scrape data from the site, including text, images, and even emails, and it supports both static and dynamic websites. Having been in business for more than 17 years, recruiters have grown to regard this service as the go-to source if recruitment is an issue. The capability of Scrape. work to harvest data from websites that demand login information is yet another useful function.
7. Zyte Job Scrapping API – Best API for Job Scraping
A web scraping API called Zyte (formerly known as ScrapingHub) enables developers to quickly and efficiently scrape data from websites. The API is perfect for companies and individuals wishing to pull data from the web for a variety of jobs, including market research, lead generation, and most importantly jobs. The API may be linked to a wide range of applications.
The Zyte job scraping API's capacity to scrape job listings from a variety of websites is one of its primary advantages. This covers corporate career portals as well as well-known job platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor. The API may be set up to regularly scrape data, ensuring that your job listings are always up-to-date. It can retrieve data such as job names, descriptions, locations, and salaries.
8. Jobspikr — Best Enterprise Level Job Scraper
Is your business wanting to muster up job? A web scraping program called Jobspikr enables companies and individuals to collect job postings from various websites and online job boards. The program may be used to scrape job listings from well-known job boards like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor as well as corporate career websites. It is made to assist you in finding job listings that meet your unique criteria and requirements.
Users may easily access job ads from a variety of sources thanks to the tool's ability to collect data from a wide range of job boards and websites. It is simple to filter, sort, and identify the jobs that best suit the user's needs because the scraped data contains job title, locations, income ranges, posting dates, skills required, experience required, and job descriptions.
9. Phantom Buster LinkedIn Job Scraper – Best Browser Extension in Job Scraping
Phantombuster's LinkedIn Job Scraper is a scraping tool that may be used to collect job-related data from LinkedIn. It has a browser extension that you may install and utilize directly in your browser, in particular. Consequently, it is a quick method of locating job openings, names, titles, and job descriptions. This LinkedIn expert is proficient at compiling every job that matches the provided criteria, quality, or keyword.
Consequently, it has become a destination for LinkedIn job seekers and recruiters. Both Firefox and Google Chrome support the plugin. Interestingly, despite the scrapper's simplicity, the providers include step-by-step instructions on their website. It provides a free trial but only all functionalities with a premium service.
10. Helium Scraper – One-Time Option
Helium Scraper is the item listed last here. This famous scraping program enables you to gather information from numerous internet pages. Visit Helium Scraper whenever you need to scrape jobs, especially sporadic ones. This is due to the fact that it enables a single service and payment. As a result, there is no ongoing financial obligation.
Data may be easily extracted from even the most complex websites thanks to the tool's user-friendly interface and strong functionality. What's more, Helium Scraper can collect information from both static and dynamic websites. Data can be extracted from a variety of websites thanks to the tool's ability to work with JavaScript, AJAX, and other technologies that are used to build dynamic websites.
FAQs About job scraping
Q. What Are the Best Websites to Scrape Job Data from?
There are constant postings of job offers cutting across different industries on a daily basis. However, there are a ton of websites these days that advertise job openings for both remote, on-site, and even hybrid work.
As such, there are a few sites that generate lots of job data that can be scraped for analysis. Some of these top websites include Indeed, Upwork, Freelancer, RemoteOK, ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor, Jobzilla, and even LinkedIn. However, it is important to be sure that these websites permit scraping; if not, you would be facing an IP ban or a block.
Q. Is web scraping Indeed legal or allowed?
Yes, scraping the popular job site is legal. However, as with most online job boards, Indeed does not allow the scraping of its site. for you to do so, you will need to use job scrapers that can hide the fact that they are using automated access as they will get blocked. The job scraping tools mentioned above are some of the scrapers you can use to scrape Indeed without getting detected provided you did it in the right way.
Q. How to scrape Indeed with python?
Here is an example of how to scrape job listings from the Indeed website using Python and the BeautifulSoup library:
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
URL = "https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=data+scientist+%2420%2C000&l=New+York&start=10"
page = requests.get(URL)
soup = BeautifulSoup(page.text, "html.parser")
results = soup.find("div", attrs={"id": "searchCountPages"})
print(results.text.strip())
jobs = []
for div in soup.find_all("div", class_="jobsearch-SerpJobCard"):
title = div.find("h2", class_="title")
company = div.find("span", class_="company")
location = div.find("div", class_="recJobLoc")
if None in (title, company, location):
continue
job = {"title": title.text.strip(),
"company": company.text.strip(),
"location": location["data-rc-loc"]}
jobs.append(job)
print(jobs)
This code uses the requests library to send an HTTP request to the URL of the job search results page on Indeed. The response from the website is then passed to BeautifulSoup for parsing. The soup.find() and soup.find_all() methods are used to search for specific HTML elements on the page, such as the count of pages of job listings and the individual job listing divs.
The relevant information, such as job title, company name, and location, is extracted from the HTML elements and stored in a list of dictionaries, which represents the scraped job listings.
Learn more,
- How to Scrape Job Postings Data with Python
- How to Scrape Online Job Opportunities with Python
- How to Use Beautifulsoup for Python Scraping Webpages
Conclusion
Whether as an individual or an agency, data generated by job scraping can give you a good picture of what the job market looks like. It would help in making career decisions and, for the company, getting the right talent.
In this article, we have taken the time to guide you through what job scraping is and the tools that can help you achieve it. We hope that this has pointed to the right direction on job scraping.
