🎯 Pnet Job Scraper - Complete Job Data Extraction

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🌟 Why Choose Pnet Job Scraper?

Pnet Job Scraper is your complete solution for automated job data extraction from South Africa's leading job portal. Whether you're building a job search platform, conducting market research, or gathering recruitment intelligence, this scraper delivers structured, comprehensive job data with enterprise-grade reliability.

✨ Key Benefits

• 📊 Complete Data Coverage - Extract titles, companies, locations, salaries, descriptions, and metadata
• 🔄 Intelligent Automation - Handles pagination, retries, and anti-bot measures automatically
• ⚡ High Performance - Optimized for speed with smart rate limiting and session management
• 🛡️ Enterprise Ready - Built-in proxy rotation and error handling for reliable operation
• 📈 Scalable - Process thousands of jobs with configurable limits and filtering
• 🎯 Flexible Search - Keyword, location, and category-based job discovery

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🚀 Quick Start

Basic Job Search

{
  "keyword": "software engineer",
  "location": "Johannesburg",
  "results_wanted": 100
}

Advanced Configuration

{
  "keyword": "data scientist",
  "location": "Cape Town",
  "results_wanted": 500,
  "collectDetails": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

🎯 Ready to scrape? Start your first run now!

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📋 Features

🔍 Smart Data Extraction Job Titles & Companies - Accurate extraction with fallback methods Location Data - City, region, and area information Salary Information - Range, type, and currency details Job Descriptions - Full HTML and plain text versions Posting Dates - Relative and absolute timestamps Job Categories - Industry and role classifications

⚙️ Advanced Automation Intelligent Pagination - Automatic page navigation and discovery Session Management - Smart session rotation for reliability Rate Limiting - Built-in delays to respect website limits Error Recovery - Automatic retries with exponential backoff Anti-Bot Evasion - Multiple techniques to avoid detection Proxy Integration - Residential proxy support for scale

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📥 Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
keyword	string	No	"admin"	Primary search term (e.g., "software engineer", "marketing manager")
location	string	No	""	Geographic filter (e.g., "Johannesburg", "Cape Town", "Durban")
category	string	No	""	Job category or industry filter
startUrl	string	No	-	Custom Pnet URL to begin scraping
url	string	No	-	Alternative custom URL parameter
results_wanted	integer	No	100	Target number of jobs to collect (1-10000)
max_pages	integer	No	10	Maximum search pages to process
collectDetails	boolean	No	true	Fetch full job descriptions from detail pages
proxyConfiguration	object	No	-	Proxy settings for enhanced reliability

🔧 Configuration Examples

Entry-Level Jobs Search

{
  "keyword": "graduate",
  "location": "Johannesburg",
  "results_wanted": 200,
  "max_pages": 15
}

Senior Management Positions

{
  "keyword": "director",
  "category": "management",
  "results_wanted": 50,
  "collectDetails": true
}

Custom URL Scraping

{
  "startUrl": "https://www.pnet.co.za/jobs/it",
  "results_wanted": 300,
  "max_pages": 20
}

Large-Scale Data Collection

{
  "keyword": "engineer",
  "results_wanted": 1000,
  "max_pages": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "ZA"
  }
}

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📤 Output Data Schema

The scraper produces structured JSON records optimized for data analysis and integration.

Core Job Fields

Field	Type	Description	Example
title	string	Job position title	"Senior Software Engineer"
company	string	Hiring organization	"TechCorp Solutions Ltd"
location	string	Job location details	"Johannesburg, Gauteng"
salary	string	Compensation information	"R500,000 - R700,000 per annum"
date_posted	string	Posting timestamp	"2 days ago"
job_url	string	Direct job link	"https://www.pnet.co.za/job/..."

Extended Information

Field	Type	Description	Example
job_type	string	Employment type	"Full-time"
job_category	string	Industry category	"Information Technology"
description_html	string	Full HTML description	"<div><p>We are seeking..."
description_text	string	Plain text description	"We are seeking a talented..."

📊 Sample Output Record

{
  "title": "Senior Full Stack Developer",
  "company": "Digital Innovations Ltd",
  "location": "Cape Town, Western Cape",
  "salary": "R450,000 - R650,000 per annum",
  "date_posted": "1 day ago",
  "job_type": "Full-time",
  "job_category": "Information Technology",
  "description_html": "<div><p>Join our dynamic team as a Senior Full Stack Developer...</p></div>",
  "description_text": "Join our dynamic team as a Senior Full Stack Developer...",
  "job_url": "https://www.pnet.co.za/job/senior-full-stack-developer/digital-innovations-job12345"
}

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🎯 Usage Examples

Basic API Integration

REST API Access

# Get results as JSON
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR-ACTOR-ID/runs/YOUR-RUN-ID/dataset/items?format=json"

# Export as CSV
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR-ACTOR-ID/runs/YOUR-RUN-ID/dataset/items?format=csv"

Python Integration

import requests

# Fetch job data
response = requests.get(
    'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR-ACTOR-ID/runs/YOUR-RUN-ID/dataset/items?format=json',
    params={'token': 'YOUR-API-TOKEN'}
)

jobs = response.json()

# Process and analyze
for job in jobs:
    print(f"📋 {job['title']} at {job['company']}")
    print(f"📍 Location: {job['location']}")
    print(f"💰 Salary: {job['salary']}")
    print("---")

JavaScript/Node.js

const Apify = require('apify');

async function processJobs() {
    const run = await Apify.call('YOUR-ACTOR-ID', {
        keyword: 'javascript developer',
        location: 'Johannesburg',
        results_wanted: 50
    });

    const dataset = await Apify.openDataset(run.defaultDatasetId);
    const jobs = await dataset.getData().then(data => data.items);

    jobs.forEach(job => {
        console.log(`${job.title} - ${job.company} (${job.location})`);
    });
}

processJobs();

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⚙️ Advanced Configuration

Proxy Settings for Scale

{
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "ZA"
  }
}

Performance Optimization

Setting	Recommended	Description
results_wanted	100-500	Balance data needs with processing time
max_pages	10-25	Prevent excessive crawling
collectDetails	true	Get complete job information

Error Handling & Reliability

• Automatic Retries - Failed requests are retried with smart backoff
• Session Rotation - Fresh sessions prevent blocking
• Rate Limiting - Respectful delays between requests
• Circuit Breaker - Automatic failure detection and recovery

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💼 Use Cases & Applications

🎯 Recruitment & HR

• Talent Pipeline Building - Identify qualified candidates across South African regions
• Market Intelligence - Track job market trends and salary ranges in South Africa
• Competitor Analysis - Monitor hiring patterns of industry peers

📊 Market Research

• Industry Analysis - Study job market demand by sector and location in South Africa
• Salary Benchmarking - Compare compensation across roles and companies
• Geographic Insights - Understand regional job market dynamics in South Africa

🤖 Automation & Integration

• Job Board Aggregation - Combine data from multiple South African sources
• Alert Systems - Monitor new job postings in specific areas
• Data Enrichment - Enhance CRM and applicant tracking systems

📈 Business Intelligence

• Workforce Planning - Forecast hiring needs based on South African market data
• Economic Indicators - Track employment trends and opportunities in South Africa
• Career Development - Identify in-demand skills and roles in South Africa

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🔒 Compliance & Best Practices

Responsible Scraping

• Rate Limiting - Built-in delays respect website performance
• Session Management - Mimics human browsing patterns
• Error Recovery - Graceful handling of temporary issues

Data Usage Guidelines

• Terms Compliance - Adhere to Pnet.co.za terms of service
• Privacy Respect - Handle personal data appropriately
• Legal Compliance - Ensure usage complies with applicable laws

Performance Considerations

• Resource Management - Efficient memory and network usage
• Scalability - Designed for high-volume data collection
• Monitoring - Comprehensive logging and error tracking

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🆘 Support & Resources

Getting Help

• 📧 Support - Contact via Apify platform for technical assistance
• 🐛 Bug Reports - Report issues through the Apify console
• 💡 Feature Requests - Suggest improvements and new capabilities

Documentation

• 📖 API Reference - Complete parameter and output documentation
• 🎯 Examples - Sample configurations for common use cases
• 🔧 Configuration Guide - Advanced setup and optimization tips

Updates & Maintenance

• 🔄 Regular Updates - Continuous improvements and compatibility updates
• 📢 Changelog - Track new features and bug fixes
• 🛡️ Reliability - Enterprise-grade stability and performance

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