Apify Job Search API

Job Search API: A Live Job Feed From Google Jobs

Use Google Jobs as a job search API. One call takes a role and location and returns fresh, structured listings with direct apply links, ready to serve to an app, an AI agent, a job board, or an alerts pipeline.

When to use this skill

• The user wants a job search API or a job postings feed for an application, bot, or AI agent.
• They want to refresh a job board, careers digest, or alerts pipeline on a schedule.
• They want fresh openings for a role filtered to a location, language, or radius.
• They ask "which job search sites have an API" or "how do I search job listings by API".

Not for: one-off bulk exports of a single search (use the scrape-google-jobs skill), salary analytics (no numeric salary field), or LinkedIn-only listings (use the LinkedIn Jobs API).

What the feed returns (one row per listing)

title, company_name, location, via (source platform), description, job_highlights, extensions, detected_extensions (posted_at, schedule_type, plus benefit flags such as health_insurance only when a listing advertises them), apply_options (per-platform direct apply links), job_id, share_link. job_id is the dedupe key; posted_at ("3 days ago") is the freshness signal.

Prerequisites

• Apify account (sign up at https://apify.com?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills).
• Authentication via apify login, or an APIFY_TOKEN environment variable (Apify Console, Settings, Integrations).

The Actor

• Store page: https://apify.com/johnvc/Google-Jobs-Scraper?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills
• Actor ID: johnvc/Google-Jobs-Scraper
• Pricing: pay per page of results processed (see references/gotchas.md).

Run it with the Apify CLI

One feed call, bounded to about three pages:

apify actors call "johnvc/Google-Jobs-Scraper" -i '{"query":"registered nurse","location":"Dallas, TX","num_results":30,"max_pagination":3}' \
  --json \
  --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-job-search-api \
  2>/dev/null

Read the newest run's items later, for example from a scheduled run:

apify datasets get-items <DATASET_ID> --format json --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-job-search-api 2>/dev/null

Every call carries the three flags this repo expects: --json (or --format json), --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-job-search-api, and 2>/dev/null.

Run it from Claude or another AI agent (MCP)

The Actor is MCP-ready. Add the hosted server URL:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,johnvc/Google-Jobs-Scraper

Then ask, for example: "Search jobs for senior accountant roles in Chicago posted this week and give me the apply links." MCP setup docs: https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp

Workflow

1. Define the feed. One Actor input per feed: query (role or skill), location, and localization (google_domain, language) for non-US markets. A radius feed adds include_lrad and lrad_value.
2. Bound each poll. For a feed you refresh often, keep num_results at 20 to 50 and set max_pagination (2 to 5) as the hard cost cap per call.
3. Estimate cost per poll and per month, then confirm with the user. See references/gotchas.md.
4. Call the Actor, read the dataset, and post-process: dedupe against your store on job_id, parse posted_at relative ages ("3 days ago") to timestamps, and keep only rows newer than your last poll.
5. Serve the result. Hand rows to the app or agent, write them to your database, or deliver a digest. For recurring feeds, wrap the same input in an Apify Schedule or a cron job.

Inputs

• query (string, required): role, skill, or company
• location (string): city, state, or country
• country, language, google_domain (enums): localization
• num_results (integer, default 100): cap per call, keep small for feeds
• max_pagination (integer): hard page cap per call, the cost bound
• include_lrad (boolean) plus lrad_value (string, km): radius feeds

Cost

Billing is per page processed, roughly 10 listings per page, so a bounded feed poll of 30 results is about three pages. A daily 3-page poll is roughly 90 pages per month; estimate with the live per-page price in references/gotchas.md before scheduling.

Honest limits

• This is a polled feed, not a push API: freshness is your poll interval.
• posted_at is a relative string; the workflow converts it client-side. There is no server-side date filter.
• No numeric salary field and no experience-level field.
• Inventory varies by region and query; some polls legitimately return nothing new.

Troubleshooting

• Duplicate listings across polls: expected; dedupe on job_id before serving.
• Nothing new in a poll: normal for narrow queries; widen the query or slow the poll.
• Budget warning at startup: raise the run budget or lower num_results / max_pagination.

See references/gotchas.md for cost guardrails and error recovery, and references/actor-index.md for the Actor routing table.

Related job-data Actors

• Google Jobs Scraper API, pay per result edition: https://apify.com/johnvc/google-jobs-scraper---pay-per-result?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills
• LinkedIn Jobs API: https://apify.com/johnvc/linkedin-jobs-api?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills
• Glassdoor Reviews API: https://apify.com/johnvc/glassdoor-reviews-api?fpr=9n7kx3&fp_sid=awesomeskills