Actor Returning 25% of Expected Results

Can confirm that issues persists today

Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out.

We have reviewed the issue, and based on a logged session, your results are consistent with current data trends. You can compare with a similar search session here: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search/?currentJobId=3935989254&f_JT=C&f_TPR=r604800&geoId=101165590&keywords=Data%20Scientist%20OR%20Data%20Engineer%20OR%20Data%20Analyst%20OR%20Data%20Visualisation&location=United%20Kingdom&origin=JOB_SEARCH_PAGE_JOB_FILTER&refresh=true&sortBy=R

Here are the input filter based on your input run:

• Job type: Contract
• Job titles: Data Scientist OR Data Engineer OR Data Analyst OR Data Visualisation
• Location: United Kingdom
• Published: Less than a week

For this input, we found 52 results, which aligns with your observation (see screenshot).

If you need more results, consider adjusting the filters, such as removing the "Contract" filter under Job type. This should significantly increase the number of job listings.

Please let us know if you have any other questions or need further assistance.

Best regards,

The reduced number of results is likely due to current market conditions, with fewer job postings available at this time of year.

Hey Bebity, thank you for your response. Whilst I agree that there might be fewer job postings (there was a public holiday a week ago), it still feels off. I appreciate that I could broaden the search, but I only want "Contract" roles in the returned data, so broadening it would add more noise without addressing what I think is the problem.

Today, the actor YTWfOazPzwcfEgYDu returned 29 results. The screenshot attached, taken about 20 minutes after the actor ran (using the link you provided above in incognito), returned 62 results, suggesting it's only returning about 50% of the results.

The main question I have, I guess, is that a few months ago, when the actor returned every day (with the same search terms), we consistently returned around 400 results. Then, it was acknowledged in another ticket by yourselves that LinkedIn had changed something, which now meant that the actor consistently then has been returning around 200 results every day.

For the last 3 days, the actor has consistently returned around 30 results. A drop in the number of roles might explain this, but it seems like a sudden fall off a cliff. It might very well be that LinkedIn has now changed the results it returns again meaning we should expect to see less results, but it feels off to me and I'm getting very little throughput compared to what I would normally see and compared to other job boards where I take similar information.

I have attached the screenshot showing the drop off a cl... [trimmed]

I also checked logged in, and for the same search results, it returns 49, again 20 more than the actor returned this morning.

Hello @testtheworkout,

Thank you for your detailed feedback and patience. We have made a fix, and now the actor should return all available job postings, making the results more consistent with what you see on the job page in incognito mode.

To address your specific concerns:

Why did the actor return half the number of results compared to what's visible using your link above (29 vs. 61)?

• This issue has been fixed. You should now see a much closer correlation between the results returned by the actor and those visible in incognito mode.

If the actor is working as expected, can you confirm if LinkedIn has again made further changes, reducing the volume of roles returned?

• The issue with the reduced volume of roles returned has been addressed. Please give it another try and let us know if you encounter any further discrepancies.

Here is your original input run with the deployed fix: https://console.apify.com/view/runs/TrieYC2CTL4q4dcEt

We appreciate your understanding and continued support. Please provide feedback after your next run to ensure everything is working as expected so we can close the issue if its good for you.

Best regards,

Thank you! I've checked and the number of records returned closely matches the recognition window, today that number is 52. Appreciate you doing this over the weekend.

I guess one more question before we close out the ticket - are you able to explain why this actor before is consistently returning over 200 results, then for the last 4 days only around 50?

Was it collecting more records that the search term was returning before? or Duplicates or something else? Seems very strange that roles on LinkedIn suddenly and consistently become 1/4 of what they were overnight and stayed that way?

I'm starting to think there is a general problem with LinkedIn and contract roles. If you search for "Business Analyst" contract roles in the last week in the United States, it returns only 16 roles, which simply can't be true, or the economy would shatter.

Do you have any thoughts on this? Is there anything you have seen on your side related specifically to Contract roles? I ask for Contract roles as this is what my business is based around.

If this is a problem you are experiencing, do you have any idea how long LinkedIn normally takes to resolve problems like this?