Hi Jobs (HIJOBS) Scraper

Scrape hijobs.net — Scotland's Highlands & Islands jobs board — through the official HIJOBS mobile JSON API. The website itself sits behind Cloudflare's interactive challenge, but the HIJOBS iOS app talks to a clean, public JSON API (api.hijobs.co.uk) that is not Cloudflare-gated and needs no login. This actor uses that API directly — so you get structured JSON (not scraped HTML), fast, with richer fields than the website exposes. Newest-first by default, with an optional "posted within N hours" recency filter that early-stops pagination. JSON or CSV out.

How it works

✨ Why use this scraper?

HIJOBS is the jobs board for the Scottish Highlands & Islands — Inverness, Oban, Skye, the Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Moray. ~2,300 live vacancies across care, hospitality, retail, public sector, trades, engineering, and community/third-sector roles.

• 🚀 Official mobile API, not HTML scraping. We reverse-engineered the HIJOBS iOS app and found its public JSON API (api.hijobs.co.uk). It needs no auth and isn't behind Cloudflare — so every field comes back clean and structured, no brittle HTML parsing, no browser, no proxy required.
• 🧱 Two endpoints, full coverage. /search/results returns paginated job lists (id, title, ISO posted time, closing date, salary, location, hours, contract, sector, recruiter, logo, badges). /job/<id> adds the full HTML description, the real apply contact (name + email) for direct employers, the external application URL, and the employer record.
• ⏱️ Built-in recency filter. postedWithinHours: 24 returns only jobs added in the last day — and because results are sorted newest-first, it early-stops pagination the moment it passes the cutoff. Cheap, fast daily monitoring.
• 💰 Proper salary ranges. £42,600 to £64,000 per annum, £13.45 to £14.45 per hour → structured {currency, min, max, unit, raw}.
• 📧 Real apply contacts. Direct-employer jobs expose a genuine applyEmail + contactName; agency/external jobs expose the externalApplyUrl.
• 🧭 Consistent field names. Emits the same canonical core columns (in the same order) as every other scraper in this collection — drop the rows straight into your existing mapping.
• 📤 Clean exports. One row per vacancy. JSON + CSV exported automatically.

🎯 Use cases

Team	What they build
Highlands & Islands recruiters	Daily new-vacancy feeds across Inverness / Argyll / the Isles
Care & hospitality aggregators	Live regional vacancy boards for the sectors that dominate HIJOBS
Relocation / community sites	"Jobs in the Highlands" listings auto-populated each morning
Workforce & economic researchers	Rural Scotland labour-market datasets with salary + sector
Third-sector / public bodies	Track who's hiring across Highland charities and councils

📥 Supported inputs

There are two ways to search, and Search-by-URL always wins when both are filled in:

1. Search by URL (startUrls) — paste any hijobs.net address. The easiest way: go to hijobs.net, click the filter chips you want (sector, location, employer type, salary, last-N-days…), then copy the address-bar URL straight in. Every chip is honoured.

URL	Behaviour
https://hijobs.net/search/results?employers=charity-cic&where=Scotland&sort=relevance&since=3	Full filtered search — all chips honoured; since=3 → last-3-days recency
https://hijobs.net/jobs	Newest-first listing
https://hijobs.net/jobs/<location>	Location facet (e.g. /jobs/oban)
https://hijobs.net/job/<id>/<slug>	Single job → GET /job/<id>
https://api.hijobs.co.uk/search/results?...	Raw API search URL (params passed through)

2. Search by filters — used only when startUrls is empty. Pick from dropdowns instead of building a URL:

Field	Maps to	Values
keywords	keyword search	free text (e.g. support worker)
where	location	free text (e.g. Inverness, Scotland)
employerType	recruiter type	Charity / CIC, Direct Employer, Agency, Recruitment Consultant, Local Government
hours	working hours	Full Time, Part Time
contractType	contract	Permanent, Contract, Interim, Graduate, Temporary, Casual, Student Placement, Volunteer
sort	ordering	Newest first, Date, Highest salary, Relevance
postedWithinHours	recency	e.g. 24 (last day), 72 (last 3 days)

Leave everything empty for the newest-first feed.

Not supported: authenticated/recruiter features, the applicant flow, employer dashboards.

🔄 How it works

1. Resolve input — turn startUrls (website or API), or keywords/where, into API queries (or direct job-IDs).
2. Paginate GET /search/results?sort=added&size=25&pg=N (newest-first).
3. Parse each Jobs[] item — id, title, ISO Added (posted), Expires (closing), rate, location, hours, contract, sector, recruiter, logo, flags (Work-from-home / Immediate-start / Promoted), teaser.
4. Recency gate — with postedWithinHours set, skip older items and stop paginating once a whole page is past the cutoff.
5. Enrich (optional) — GET /job/<id> for the full HTML description, apply contact (name + email), application URL, employer record.
6. Normalise + push — every row goes through the shared canonical normaliser so the column layout matches the rest of the collection.

⚙️ Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
startUrls	array	(empty)	Search by URL — takes priority. Any hijobs.net listing/search/facet/job URL. When set, the filter fields below are ignored.
keywords	string	(none)	Keyword search (filter mode).
where	string	(none)	Location / area (filter mode).
employerType	string	Any	Recruiter type → employers (e.g. charity-cic). Filter mode.
hours	string	Any	full-time / part-time. Filter mode.
contractType	string	Any	permanent, contract, temporary, volunteer, … Filter mode.
sort	string	added	added (newest), date, salary, relevance.
enrichDetail	boolean	true	Fetch each /job/<id> for the full description + apply contact. Disable for list-only (faster, fewer calls).
postedWithinHours	integer	(none)	Only return jobs added in the last N hours (24 = last day, 72 = last 3 days). Empty/0 = all. Early-stops pagination — ideal for daily monitoring.
maxItems	integer	1000	Hard cap on rows pushed (~2,300 live jobs total).
maxPages	integer	120	Safety cap on API pages walked (25 jobs/page). The recency filter usually stops far earlier.
maxConcurrency	integer	5	Parallel /job/<id> detail fetches.
proxy	object	(off)	Optional. The API is open, so a proxy isn't needed — left here for users who want one.

📊 Output overview

Each scraped vacancy is one single dataset row of type: "job". List fields are always present; description (full HTML), applyEmail/contactName, and externalApplyUrl come from detail enrichment when enrichDetail is on.

📦 Output sample

{
  "type": "job",
  "source": "hijobs.net",
  "jobId": "410005",
  "slug": "principal-overhead-line-ohl-engineer",
  "jobUrl": "https://hijobs.net/job/410005/principal-overhead-line-ohl-engineer",
  "title": "Principal Overhead Line (OHL) Engineer",
  "companyName": "SSE",
  "companyWebsite": null,
  "companyDomain": null,
  "location": "Glasgow, Perth, Aberdeen, Inverness",
  "remote": false,
  "salary": { "currency": "GBP", "min": 58100, "max": 87100, "raw": "£58,100 to £87,100 per annum", "unit": "year" },
  "salaryRaw": "£58,100 to £87,100 per annum",
  "categories": ["Engineering and Technical", "Engineering Management"],
  "employmentTypes": ["Permanent"],
  "contractType": "Permanent",
  "hours": "40 per week",
  "postedDate": "2026-06-05T16:34:18Z",
  "closingDate": "2026-06-18T00:00:00Z",
  "modifiedDate": null,
  "description": "<p><strong>Base Location:</strong> …</p>",
  "descriptionText": "Base Location: …",
  "applyType": "external",
  "applyUrl": "https://hijobs.net/apply/410005/principal-overhead-line-ohl-engineer",
  "applyEmail": null,
  "externalApplyUrl": "https://hijobs.net/apply/external/410005",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-05T18:13:00.000Z",
  "sourceProvider": "hijobs",
  "apiUrl": "https://api.hijobs.co.uk/job/410005",
  "recruiterType": "direct-employer",
  "recruiterSlug": "sse",
  "companyLogo": "https://hjcdn.co.uk/images/employers/…",
  "city": null,
  "country": null,
  "postedFriendly": "June, 05, 2026 4:34 PM",
  "descriptionTeaser": "…",
  "reference": "Job Number: 558523",
  "requiresCv": false,
  "numberVacancies": 1,
  "flags": ["Promoted"],
  "contactName": "Human Resources"
}

🗂 Key output fields

Group	Fields
Identifiers	type, source, sourceProvider (hijobs), jobId, slug, jobUrl, apiUrl, scrapedAt
Content	title, description (HTML, with enrichDetail), descriptionText, descriptionTeaser
Dates	postedDate (ISO, from Added), postedFriendly, closingDate (from Expires), modifiedDate
Employer	companyName, recruiterType (direct-employer / agency), recruiterSlug, companyLogo, contactName
Location	location, city, country, remote
Compensation	salary.{currency, min, max, unit, raw}, salaryRaw
Classification	categories[] (sector + specialism), employmentTypes[], contractType, hours
Apply flow	applyType (external / email / internal), applyUrl, applyEmail, externalApplyUrl
HIJOBS-specific	flags[] (Work-from-home / Immediate-start / Promoted / Popular), reference, requiresCv, numberVacancies

❓ FAQ

How does this get past Cloudflare? It doesn't have to. The HIJOBS website is Cloudflare-gated, but the HIJOBS iOS app talks to a separate, public JSON API on api.hijobs.co.uk that isn't behind Cloudflare and needs no login. We call that API directly — cleaner and faster than scraping the site. (A Cloudflare-bypass fallback exists for resilience but is rarely needed.)

Why is applyEmail sometimes null? Direct-employer jobs publish a real contact email (you'll get applyEmail + contactName). Agency / "apply on the employer's site" jobs instead publish an externalApplyUrl, and applyType is external. Jobs with neither default to the on-site HIJOBS apply page in applyUrl.

Does postedWithinHours really save money? Yes. Results are newest-first, so the actor stops paginating as soon as it hits a full page older than your cutoff. A postedWithinHours: 24 run typically touches 1–3 pages instead of all ~95.

Why is closingDate / full description sometimes null? The full description + closing date come from the /job/<id> detail call. With enrichDetail: false those calls are skipped — the list still gives title, employer, posted time, salary, location, hours, sector, and the closing date (Expires).

Can I scrape a specific town or sector? Set where (e.g. Inverness) and/or keywords, or paste a https://hijobs.net/jobs/<location> URL. The same row shape applies.

Can I scrape private pages or applicant data? No. Only the same public job listings + detail the HIJOBS app itself loads — no authenticated endpoints.

💬 Support

• For issues or feature requests, please use the Issues tab on the actor's Apify Console page.
• Author's website: https://muhamed-didovic.github.io/
• Email: muhamed.didovic@gmail.com

🛠 Additional services

• Custom output shape, additional fields, or one-off datasets: muhamed.didovic@gmail.com
• Mobile-API reverse-engineering for other Cloudflare-gated sites in your portfolio (same approach as here): drop an email.
• For API access (no Apify fee, just usage): muhamed.didovic@gmail.com

🔎 Explore more scrapers

See other scrapers at memo23's Apify profile — covering job boards, real estate, social media, and more.

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⚠️ Disclaimer

This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by HIJOBS, HIJOBS Limited, hijobs.net, or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

The scraper accesses only the public job-search and job-detail endpoints of the HIJOBS mobile API — the same data the HIJOBS app loads for any user — with no authenticated endpoints, recruiter-only features, applicant data, or content behind a login. Users are responsible for ensuring their use complies with HIJOBS's Terms of Service, applicable data-protection law (GDPR, CCPA, etc.), and any contractual obligations of their own organisation.

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