Lightcast Companies : API & Data Shares Update

Lightcast is upgrading its company database. Lightcast Companies gives you broader coverage, higher quality data and richer insight into commercial, government, education and nonprofit organisations. Find out more in Lightcast Companies.

On November 20, 2026, Lightcast Companies will become the default company database. Because this release updates the underlying data structure, it can introduce breaking changes if your integration relies on hardcoded company names or IDs.

To help you transition, Lightcast provides temporary compatibility options that preserve legacy (v2) company values. The available options vary by API. For example, Resume Classification uses organization.alternateIds, and Occupation Benchmark uses employers_v2.

Impacted APIs and Data Shares

This update affects company identifiers and names across the following APIs and Data Shares.

Name	APIs	Data Shares
Job Postings	US, Global, Canada, UK, and Company	US, Global, Canada, UK, and Company Direct
Profiles	US, Global, and Canada	US and Global
Classification	/company/normalize, /postings/classify (company)	N/A
Resume Classification	/resume/classify	N/A
Occupation Benchmark	Occupation Benchmark API	N/A
Alumni Pathways	Alumni Pathways API	Alumni Pathways

What is Changing?

The changes vary by API. Review the following sections to understand how company identifiers, names, and temporary compatibility fields will change.

Classification API

With the 2026.12 release, company classification services will transition to the Lightcast Companies (v3) dataset. This change affects the /company/normalize endpoint and requests that specify company in /postings/classify.

To continue using the previous dataset version, use release version 2026.11 or earlier.

Company Normalize (/company/normalize)

The following table maps the existing V2 response labels to the new V3 labels.

V2 Label	V3Label
id	company_id
name	company_name
naics	naics_6
website	website
isStaffing	is_staffing
isFortune1000	is_fortune1000

Postings Classify (/postings/classify)

When you specify a company in a Postings Classify request, the following response labels change.

V2 Label	V3 Label
id	company_id
name	company_name

Resume Classification API

In the Resume Classification API (/resume/classify), company information appears in the organization object. On November 20, 2026, organization.id.value will contain the new Lightcast Companies identifier instead of the legacy numeric ID.

The alternateIds array retains the legacy (v2) company identifier and name to support existing integrations during the transition.

The legacy entry uses schemeId: Lightcast Companies Version 2 and includes the following fields:

value: The legacy company identifier.
description: The legacy company name.

Example response before the update.

{
  "organization": {
    "id": {
      "value": "20",
      "schemeId": "Lightcast Companies",
      "schemeAgencyId": "Lightcast"
    },
    "name": "Amazon",
    "alternateIds": [
      {
        "value": "20",
        "schemeId": "Lightcast Companies Version 2",
        "schemeAgencyId": "Lightcast",
        "description": "Amazon"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Example response after the update

{
  "organization": {
    "id": {
      "value": "780fb79d-a25e-44bf-9720-91de348c99a7",
      "schemeId": "Lightcast Companies",
      "schemeAgencyId": "Lightcast"
    },
    "name": "Amazon",
    "alternateIds": [
      {
        "value": "20",
        "schemeId": "Lightcast Companies Version 2",
        "schemeAgencyId": "Lightcast",
        "description": "Amazon"
      }
    ]
  }
}

In the updated response, organization.id.value contains the new company identifier. The alternateIds array retains the legacy identifier and name.

Occupation Benchmark API

On November 20, 2026, the Occupation Benchmark API will transition its employer data to the upgraded Lightcast Companies framework. Employer information appears in the employers section of the response.

The temporary employers_v2 field preserves legacy employer identifiers and names to help you maintain compatibility during the transition.

The employers_v2 array includes the following fields:

id: The legacy employer identifier.
name: The legacy employer name.

The array also includes the associated count and percentage values.

Example Response

{
  "employers_v2": [
    {
      "id": "2128242",
      "name": "TransUnion",
      "count": 28,
      "percentage": 0.0653
    },
    {
      "id": "994310",
      "name": "McDonald's",
      "count": 22,
      "percentage": 0.0513
    }
  ]
}

Use employers_v2 as a temporary compatibility option while you update your integration to use the new company taxonomy.

Action Required

Review your API and Data Share integrations before November 20, 2026, to ensure they support the updated company identifiers and names.

We recommend that you:

Review your integrations: Identify workflows that rely on existing company identifiers, names, or response field names.
Update your integrations: Modify your code to handle the new identifiers and field names, where applicable.
Test your changes: Verify that your integrations continue to work as expected with the updated company data.

Temporary Fallback

If you need additional time to update your integrations, use the applicable compatibility option:

Job Postings, Profiles, and Alumni Pathways: Use company_v2 and company_name_v2 to access legacy company values.
Classification: Use release version 2026.11 or earlier to remain on the previous dataset version.
Resume Classification: Use the legacy entry in organization.alternateIds to access the previous company identifier and name.
Occupation Benchmark: Use employers_v2 to access legacy employer identifiers and names.

These compatibility options are temporary and will not be supported indefinitely. We recommend migrating to the new Lightcast Companies taxonomy as soon as possible.

Need Help?

If you have questions or need assistance with this update, contact [email protected].