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Big Man

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How to get job listings from SEEK New Zealand with an API (Python, Node or no code)

#webscraping #python #javascript #api

SEEK is New Zealand's biggest job board. If you want its listings in a spreadsheet, a database or an automation (a morning feed of new jobs in your region, salary benchmarking, or a list of companies hiring right now), copying ads by hand doesn't scale.

This tutorial uses Seek NZ Job Scraper, an Apify actor I built that reads SEEK's own JSON search API for seek.co.nz. It needs no browser and no proxy, so a run takes seconds. The full examples are on GitHub: auto-actor/seek-nz-job-scraper.

What people use it for

  • A fresh list of jobs in one region every morning, pushed to a Google Sheet or Slack.
  • Salary benchmarking by classification or region.
  • Lists of companies that are hiring right now (the company field), for sales or recruiting.

Input 

{"keywords": "carpenter", "where": "Auckland", "maxItems": 50}
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keywords and where work the way they do on seek.co.nz; maxItems caps the number of jobs.

Python 

"""Run Seek NZ Job Scraper on Apify and print the results.

    pip install apify-client
    export APIFY_TOKEN=...   # Apify Console -> Settings -> Integrations
    python example.py
"""
import os

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])

run = client.actor("daedal_quintuplet/seek-nz-job-scraper").call(
    run_input={
        "keywords": "carpenter",
        "where": "Auckland",
        "maxItems": 50
    }
)

jobs = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items()
for job in jobs:
    print(job["title"], "|", job["company"], "|", job.get("salary") or "no salary listed", "|", job["url"])
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Node.js 

// Run Seek NZ Job Scraper on Apify and print the results.
//
//   npm install apify-client
//   APIFY_TOKEN=... node example.js     (token: Apify Console -> Settings -> Integrations)

const { ApifyClient } = require('apify-client');

async function main() {
    const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });

    const run = await client.actor('daedal_quintuplet/seek-nz-job-scraper').call({
        "keywords": "carpenter",
        "where": "Auckland",
        "maxItems": 50
    });

    const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
    for (const job of items) {
        console.log(job.title, '|', job.company, '|', job.salary || 'no salary listed', '|', job.url);
    }
}

main().catch((err) => {
    console.error(err);
    process.exit(1);
});
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No code: one HTTP request

Works from n8n, Make, Zapier or curl:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/daedal_quintuplet~seek-nz-job-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"keywords": "carpenter", "where": "Auckland", "maxItems": 50}'
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What you get

One row per job:

Field Meaning
id SEEK job id
title Job title
company Advertiser
locations One or more locations
salary Salary text as shown on SEEK, when the ad states one
workTypes Full time, Part time, Contract/Temp, Casual/Vacation
classifications SEEK classification
listingDate When the ad was listed (ISO 8601)
teaser First lines of the ad
bulletPoints Up to three selling points, often empty
isFeatured Paid placement flag
url Link to the ad

Only the fields SEEK returns in search results are included, not the full ad text.

Price

$0.001 per job ($1 per 1,000), paid per result, with no monthly fee. Apify's free plan includes $5 of usage a month, which is enough to try it. If you need Australian jobs, there's a matching Seek AU Job Scraper.

Links: Store page · GitHub examples

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