Top 10 Solutions for Maximizing the Indeed API

Jennie Lee
5 min readApr 8, 2024

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Introduction

The Indeed API provides developers with access to millions of job listings from all over the world. It allows developers to fetch job listings based on specific criteria such as job title, location, and company. While the Indeed API is a powerful tool for job search and recruitment platforms, there is no Python wrapper available that fully met our requirements.

In this article, I will explain how I wrote my own script to consume the Indeed job search API and store the job listings in a CSV file. I will also provide step-by-step instructions on how to use the script and clarify the necessary requirements for utilizing the Python wrapper effectively.

Requirements for using the Python wrapper

Before we dive into using the Python wrapper for the Indeed Job Search API, there are a few requirements that need to be fulfilled.

  1. Obtaining an Indeed Publisher API ID: In order to make requests to the Indeed API, you will need an API ID. You can obtain one for free by signing up as a publisher on the Indeed website.
  2. Installing Python 3.x: The Python wrapper is compatible with Python 3.x. Make sure you have Python 3.x installed on your system.
  3. Installing the BeautifulSoup and Requests libraries: The Python wrapper relies on the BeautifulSoup and Requests libraries to parse the HTML and make HTTP requests respectively. Install these libraries using pip, the Python package manager.
pip install beautifulsoup4
pip install requests

With these requirements met, we are now ready to run the script and start fetching jobs from the Indeed job search API.

Running the script to fetch jobs from the Indeed job search API

The Python script we wrote acts as a wrapper for the Indeed Job Search API, making it easier for developers to fetch job listings and store them in a CSV file. To use the script effectively, we need to provide several parameters to indicate our search criteria.

Before we proceed, let’s take a look at the required parameters:

  • publisher_id: This is your Indeed Publisher API ID, which you obtained previously.
  • query: This is the job search query you want to retrieve job listings for. For example, “python developer” or “data scientist”.
  • location: This is the location where you want to search for job listings. You can use a city name, postal code, or geographic coordinates.
  • country_code: This is the two-letter country code where you want to search for job listings. For example, “us” for United States or “gb” for United Kingdom.
  • sort: This parameter determines how the job listings are sorted in the results. Valid values are “relevance” or “date”.
  • days: This parameter indicates how many days back you want to retrieve job listings. For example, 1 will fetch jobs posted within the last day, 7 will fetch jobs posted within the last week, and so on.

Now, let’s go through the steps to run the script and fetch jobs from the Indeed job search API:

  1. Download the Python wrapper code from the GitHub repository: link to repository
  2. Open the script file in a Python IDE or text editor.
  3. Set the required parameters at the beginning of the script. Replace the placeholders with your own values.
publisher_id = "your_publisher_id"
query = "data scientist"
location = "San Francisco, CA"
country_code = "us"
sort = "relevance"
days = 7
  1. Save the script file with a .py extension, for example “indeed_job_search.py”.
  2. Open your command line or terminal and navigate to the directory where the script file is saved.
  3. Run the script by executing the following command:
python indeed_job_search.py
  1. Wait for the script to fetch the job listings. Once it’s finished, it will save the results in a CSV file called “indeedjobs.csv” in the same directory as the script.

And that’s it! You have successfully run the Python script to fetch jobs from the Indeed job search API. Now let’s dive into understanding the output of the script and the structure of the CSV file.

Understanding the output of the script

The output of the Python script is a CSV file named “indeedjobs.csv”. This file contains all the information retrieved from the Indeed Job Search API for the specified job search criteria.

The CSV file has the following structure:

  • jobtitle: The title of the job listing.
  • company: The name of the hiring company.
  • location: The location of the job listing.
  • salary: The salary information (if provided).
  • summary: A brief summary or description of the job.
  • date: The date the job was posted.

Each row in the CSV file represents a single job listing.

The “indeedjobs.csv” file will be saved in the same directory as the script file. You can open it with any spreadsheet software or text editor to view the retrieved job listings.

Additional resources for working with the Indeed Job Search API

If you want to explore more features and possibilities of the Indeed Job Search API, here are some additional resources:

The Indeed Job Search API documentation provides detailed information on the available parameters, response formats, and best practices for utilizing the API effectively. The GitHub repository for the Python wrapper contains the code for the wrapper, which you can download and customize according to your needs.

By leveraging these resources, you can further enhance your job search or recruitment platform by integrating more advanced features from the Indeed Job Search API.

Conclusion

In this article, we explored the need for a Python wrapper for the Indeed Job Search API and why I decided to write my own script. We discussed the requirements for using the Python wrapper, including obtaining an Indeed Publisher API ID and installing Python 3.x along with the necessary libraries.

We also provided step-by-step instructions on how to run the script and fetch jobs from the Indeed job search API, as well as understanding the structure of the CSV file generated by the script. Additionally, we shared additional resources such as the Indeed Job Search API documentation and the GitHub repository where you can find the Python wrapper code.

By using the Python wrapper for the Indeed Job Search API, developers can efficiently fetch job listings and store them in a CSV file, enabling them to build powerful job search or recruitment platforms. So go ahead, give it a try, and make the most out of the Indeed Job Search API.

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