Collect
Public, no-login sources are collected into the backend evidence layer.
PathLensSOUTH AFRICA · CLEARER PATHS. BRIGHTER OPTIONS.
Transparency
How PathLens derives its figures
Every published figure should be traceable to a public source, a documented transformation, an OFO occupation match and a dated evidence snapshot. PathLens does not treat a modelled or proxy number as an observed fact.
Normalise
Titles, locations, salary periods and source fields are standardised without overwriting the original observation.
Match
Records are mapped to the six-digit OFO occupation code with a recorded confidence level.
Quality check
Duplicates, ambiguous matches, weak samples and exceptions are identified before publication.
Snapshot
Once per month a dated evidence snapshot is created and held for admin review.
Occupation identity
OFO is the canonical occupation spine. Six-digit occupation metrics are only published where the record can be defensibly mapped to a six-digit OFO code.
Demand figures
Official demand signals such as OIHD are kept separate from observed public vacancy counts. A vacancy count describes the public advertisements observed by PathLens; it is not the total number of vacancies in South Africa.
Salary figures
Worker earnings, advertised-market salary aggregates, public-service salary scales and individual advertised salaries are stored as different evidence classes. They are not silently blended into one salary number.
Salary normalisation
The raw salary and pay period are retained. Where an amount is converted to a monthly or annual comparison value, the original value remains stored alongside the derived value and the conversion method.
Duplicate advertisements
Repeated vacancy notices are identified using identifiers such as department or employer, reference number, normalised title, location, dates and description similarity. Public metrics count unique opportunities where possible rather than raw pages discovered.
OFO matching confidence
A = exact or validated alias. B = strong title and task match. C = probable and requires review. D = ambiguous and requires review. X = unmapped. Only A/B records should feed automatic six-digit occupation metrics.
Sample size and missing evidence
A figure is not strengthened by hiding a small sample. Salary and vacancy outputs should carry the observation count, source period and geography. If the evidence is insufficient, PathLens says so.
Monthly refresh
The evidence pipeline is scheduled for the first day of every month. Each run produces a new snapshot with successes, exceptions and coverage statistics. New official publications are incorporated when available.
Review before publish
A completed monthly run is marked Ready for review. It does not automatically replace the public dataset. An administrator approves the snapshot before it becomes the public evidence layer.
Current serving tier
What data PathLens is serving now
local-structuredOccupations
1511 records
No approved snapshot selected no approved database snapshot exists; served from local-structuredbundled-fallbackSources
6 records
No approved snapshot selected no approved database snapshot exists; served from bundled-fallbackbundled-fallbackSalaries
0 records
No approved snapshot selected no approved database snapshot exists; served from bundled-fallbackSource freshness
What has actually been checked
Every 6 months
Statistics
Official statistical sources used by the Statistics hub.
Last completed check: 2026-10-01T11:06:40.526673+00:00 Latest completed source check found no changed source fingerprints.
Annual + 6-month inflation/source checks
Master Data
Institutions, NQF, professional bodies, tax/ID/inflation reference sources.
Last completed check: 2026-10-01T11:07:00.001156+00:00 One or more official sources could not be fetched. 4 changed · 3 failed
Every 6 months
Study & Financing
Funding-programme rules, policy and eligibility source monitoring.
Last completed check: 2026-10-01T10:32:06.642830+00:00 One or more official sources could not be fetched. 0 changed · 8 failed
Quarterly
University tuition
Official university fee-source fingerprints and review-gated extraction candidates.
Last completed check: 2026-10-01T11:21:32.648210+00:00 One or more official sources could not be fetched. 0 changed · 6 failedSource register
Current evidence inputs
DHET Organising Framework for Occupations (OFO 2021)Department of Higher Education and Training
Occupation identity: six-digit OFO code and official title.
Source ↗Ingested · identity spine activeCanonical OFO identity data has been ingested and validated. 1511 occupation records are recorded in the ingest artifact.
DHET Occupations in High DemandDepartment of Higher Education and Training
Demand flag and publication year.
Source ↗Validated pipeline · graph publication not confirmedThe governed OIHD pipeline is active, but a successful populated graph run is not currently confirmed on this deployment.
Critical Skills ListDepartment of Home Affairs
Critical-skills flag where an OFO occupation can be matched honestly.
Source ↗Monitored · occupation linkage pendingOfficial migration sources are monitored, but PathLens does not infer visa eligibility or occupation-level eligibility from monitoring alone.
QCTO qualifications and occupational certificatesQuality Council for Trades and Occupations
Qualification or trade route linked to the occupation file.
Source ↗Candidate staging ready · not publishedQualification staging and human review are implemented; no qualification↔OFO relationship is published without an explicit source identifier or governed human review.
Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force SurveyStatistics South Africa
National and provincial labour-market context only.
Source ↗Acquisition active · no approved evidence on this deploymentOfficial QLFS artifact discovery is active. Dataset-specific schema, weighting, reliability and review gates remain separate; a discovered artifact or executable estimator does not itself create a public claim.
SETA Sector Skills Plans / hard-to-fill vacancy tablesSector Education and Training Authorities
Sector demand context and carefully sourced provincial notes.
Source ↗Partial · explicit source links onlyPathLens preserves explicit source-backed SETA/activity links where present and does not infer modern SIC relationships from occupation titles.
Interpretation rule
PathLens is a reference layer, not a census of every vacancy or salary in South Africa. Its figures describe the evidence that could be responsibly observed, mapped and documented from the stated sources.