Major Job Websites like Indeed have been offering APIs with limited features for extracting job data for a while. Now, newer websites have followed suit. However these APIs are either expensive, or they have a limit on the amount of data you can fetch, and more often than not, they would not be allowing you to access all the data in their database.
Just when job aggregators were facing such a conundrum while using job APIs, Job Scraping services came through the door. Job Scraping services offer more freedom and variety– often at a cheaper price. We will be discussing the biggest benefits of using a Job Scraping service as compared to Job Data APIs.
Higher Coverage and the Ability to Change/Add New Sources-
Dependence on Job APIs like Indeed API would mean that you are fixed on specific data sources and dependent on the company to get more data. However, when using a job-data-as-a-service provider like JobsPikr, you would be free to pick and choose the data that you want. We source data from more than 70,000 sources daily and this data has been consumed and used for solving business problems by more than 200 customers.
On the other side of the coin, job APIs also provide you with a set number of data points only. And if you are using multiple job APIs from different providers, you may not even be getting the same data points from all these sources. However, our team fetches 45 data points for every job post extracted so as to cover all the bases.
More Customization and Filters-
Job-DaaS providers like JobsPikr offer multiple filters and customization so that you can use those to get only the data that you want to consume and apply to solve business problems. This saves you money in 2 ways –
a. You use less data and hence get billed less.
b. You do not have to do data filtering or grouping on your side – thus saving both development and infra costs.
You can filter your data by location, sector, job role, and more. Given that job API providers create a more generalized ‘for-all’ solution, you would have to use the provided API without any possible changes or customizations.
Option to consume Raw Data or Insights-
With JobsPikr, you have two options. Either you can choose to consume the raw real-time job data stream or Job Data Insights. Using Job Data Insights directly will give you access to information such as top roles in demand, top titles, most commonly asked for skills, cities that are seeing more job posts in recent times, and more.
On the other hand, raw data gives you information regarding salaries, employee benefits, and added features that employees might expect from certain positions. You also get to know the different skill sets that are being asked for, for different job roles. By consuming raw job data and building an automated solution, even the creation of new job posts can be done without a human touch today. When using APIs like Indeed’s, you are likely to be bound by the options provided by the company and wouldn’t be having so many features and data points.
Real-Time Data-
With a job data provider like JobsPikr, you decide when and how you want the data. You could consume our real-time job data stream and save the data in a database or a cloud storage location like AWS S3 or even use APIs to get data from our system. Real-time data is even more beneficial for companies who want to track the smallest fluctuations in the job market or for those who are training ML or AI-based models to use in prediction engines. With API services, you would be querying data that is stale and wouldn’t be having means to consume a real-time data stream.
Enrichment and Backup Sources-
Not all data sources are equal. You may need multiple sources to get the complete picture at times. Websites can also go down due to maintenance or other issues. Job Boards could shut down. A lot of uncertainties would surround you if you put all your eggs in the same basket by depending on highly inflexible Job APIs.
Instead, services like JobsPikr provide you with data from multiple sources so that even if a few are down, or some contain incomplete information, other sources can act as a backup and the job data stream that you source from is always complete. By abstracting the system of fetching data from multiple sources, JobsPikr allows customers to focus more on how to use the data rather than worry about deficiencies in the data itself.
Easier and more Integration options-
When using a job API- doing an API-based integration is the only possible option that you have. You will be receiving JSON responses that you will need to work with. However, to make things easier for customers and so that they can start using job data with minimum changes to their existing changes and in very less time, we provide various integration options along with varied file formats. Customers can pick and choose based on whichever will work more seamlessly with their existing workflow.
Scalability, Expansion, and Future Upgrades-
In case you are starting with job data, you may be consuming the data after applying some limited filters. In case you want to add data from a new location, or sector tomorrow, an API-based solution may not offer you much unless you check its features and coverage in advance. However, with a solution like JobsPikr, you are free to update or add your filters at any point.
Cost Efficiency-
Job APIs may be easy to test and use for small use cases. But for enterprise-grade solutions, it may turn out to be too costly. On the other hand, DaaS solutions charge based on the amount of data you consume, and the cost per data point or source is much lower.
JobsPikr- the Enterprise Grade Job-DAAS Solution
Our team at JobsPikr helps our partners integrate our job feed in less than an hour so that their business and their talent teams can start evaluating job data and decide on how to use them from the get-go, without requiring a ramp-up time.
Our clean and extensive job data provide different companies with means to either use the raw data to gather insights or build other products on top of the data. One simple example of this is that some companies use our job data to figure out the latest skills, and in turn, create coursework on those skills to help job seekers upskill themselves.
If your company is evaluating job data or deciding on how to consume job market information today, act fast before your competitors get their hands on a live data stream and take data-backed strategic decisions much faster.
To know more, contact us at sales@jobspikr.com
