# Ostjob.ch Scraper — Eastern Switzerland Job Listings (`studio-amba/ostjob-scraper`) Actor

Scrape job listings, companies, locations, cantons and workload from ostjob.ch, the leading job board for Eastern Switzerland. Search by German keyword and filter by city or canton.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/studio-amba/ostjob-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Studio Amba](https://apify.com/studio-amba) (community)
- **Categories:** Jobs
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.20 / 1,000 result scrapeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Ostjob.ch Scraper

Extract job listings from [ostjob.ch](https://www.ostjob.ch), the leading job board for Eastern Switzerland (St. Gallen, Thurgau, Appenzell, Glarus, Graubünden, Liechtenstein and surrounding cantons), as clean structured JSON. Search by keyword, filter by city or canton, and get job titles, companies, workplaces, workload percentages, cantons and direct links in one run.

No login. No cookies. No browser automation. The actor talks to the same public JSON API the ostjob.ch website uses, so it is fast and stable.

### What this actor does

Given a search keyword (and optionally a city or canton), this actor collects every matching job listing from ostjob.ch and returns one row per job with:

- Job title
- Hiring company
- Workplace / city
- Canton
- Workload range (employment grade, e.g. 80–100%)
- Short preview of the description
- First-published date
- Home office / remote flag
- The job's unique ID and direct URL

ostjob.ch is a regional board covering Eastern Switzerland specifically, which makes it a useful complement to nationwide Swiss boards like jobs.ch when you need dense coverage of that region.

### Why use it

- **Regional job market research** — track how many roles match a keyword across Eastern Switzerland or a single canton.
- **Recruitment and sourcing** — build a live feed of open positions for a role, canton, or company in the St. Gallen / Thurgau / Appenzell area.
- **Workload benchmarking** — analyse employment-grade ranges across employers and roles.
- **Aggregators and job boards** — feed regional Swiss listings into your own product.

### How to scrape Ostjob.ch data

1. Open the actor and set a **Search Query** (for example `informatik`, `verkauf`, `lehrstelle` or `pflege`). ostjob.ch is German-language, so German keywords work best.
2. Optionally set a **Location** such as `St. Gallen`, `Thurgau`, `Appenzell` or `Herisau`. Leave it empty to search all of Eastern Switzerland.
3. Set **Max Results** to how many listings you want.
4. Leave the proxy on the default residential setting and click **Start**.

The actor pages through the ostjob.ch search API (up to 100 results per request) until it reaches your Max Results or runs out of listings, then writes everything to the dataset. You can export the result as JSON, CSV or Excel.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `searchQuery` | string | Keyword to search for. German keywords work best. Default: `informatik`. |
| `location` | string | City or canton filter (e.g. `St. Gallen`, `Thurgau`). Matched against each listing's city and canton. Empty = all Eastern Switzerland. |
| `maxResults` | integer | Maximum number of listings to return. Default: `100`. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Apify proxy settings. Default: residential. |

#### Example input

```json
{
    "searchQuery": "informatik",
    "location": "St. Gallen",
    "maxResults": 100,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
    }
}
```

### Output

Each dataset item looks like this:

```json
{
    "jobTitle": "Informatiker System Administration 100% (m/w/d)",
    "company": "Beispiel AG",
    "location": "St. Gallen",
    "employmentGradeMin": 80,
    "employmentGradeMax": 100,
    "preview": "Wir suchen per sofort oder nach Vereinbarung eine engagierte Persönlichkeit...",
    "publishedDate": "2026-08-03T10:54:28.904+02:00",
    "homeOffice": false,
    "canton": "St. Gallen",
    "jobId": "1088718",
    "url": "https://www.ostjob.ch/job/1088718",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-08-03T11:00:00.000Z"
}
```

#### Output fields

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `jobTitle` | string | Title of the job listing |
| `company` | string | Name of the hiring company |
| `location` | string | City or place of work |
| `employmentGradeMin` | number | Minimum workload percentage (e.g. 80) |
| `employmentGradeMax` | number | Maximum workload percentage (e.g. 100) |
| `preview` | string | Short teaser of the job description |
| `publishedDate` | string | ISO 8601 first-published date |
| `homeOffice` | boolean | Whether remote / home office work is offered |
| `canton` | string | Swiss canton the workplace is located in |
| `jobId` | string | Unique ostjob.ch vacancy identifier |
| `url` | string | Full job listing URL |
| `scrapedAt` | string | ISO 8601 timestamp of collection |

### Cost estimate

This actor uses a lightweight JSON API and no browser, so runs are cheap and fast. One request returns up to 100 listings, so even a few thousand jobs cost only a handful of requests plus proxy traffic. Exact cost depends on your Apify plan and proxy usage.

### Limitations

- **Salary** is not published in the ostjob.ch search API, so it is not included. The actor returns the workload percentage (employment grade) instead, which is what ostjob.ch exposes.
- **Location filtering is client-side.** ostjob.ch's own location filter needs an internal geocoded place ID rather than free text, so this actor matches your `location` input against each listing's city and canton after fetching. This is reliable for canton names and common city names, but very unusual spellings may not match.
- Full job descriptions are not fetched; the `preview` field holds a teaser extracted from the listing's activity text.
- Very broad keywords covering thousands of jobs take proportionally longer to page through.

### Related scrapers

Building a European jobs dataset? These sibling actors follow the same clean-JSON approach:

- **Jobs.ch Scraper** — Switzerland's largest, nationwide job board
- **Pracuj Scraper** — Poland's #1 job board
- **Jobs.cz Scraper** — Czech job listings
- **Jobs.bg Scraper** — Bulgarian job listings
- **eJobs Scraper** — Romania's largest job board

### Disclaimer

This actor collects publicly available data from ostjob.ch for legitimate research and aggregation use. Respect ostjob.ch's terms of service and applicable data protection law when using the output.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQuery` (type: `string`):

Keyword to search for (e.g. 'informatik', 'verkauf', 'lehrstelle', 'pflege'). ostjob.ch is a German-language board, so German keywords work best.

## `location` (type: `string`):

Filter by city or canton (e.g. 'St. Gallen', 'Thurgau', 'Appenzell', 'Herisau'). Matched client-side against each listing's city and canton. Leave empty to search all of Eastern Switzerland.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of job listings to return.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Proxy settings. ostjob.ch's public API is not geo-locked; residential proxies are the most reliable default.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQuery": "informatik",
  "maxResults": 5,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchQuery": "informatik",
    "maxResults": 5,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("studio-amba/ostjob-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "searchQuery": "informatik",
    "maxResults": 5,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("studio-amba/ostjob-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQuery": "informatik",
  "maxResults": 5,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call studio-amba/ostjob-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=studio-amba/ostjob-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/elToadg5lhdpgu1ff/builds/Ri5itmhrrk8fLWQks/openapi.json