I have a "XML like" file <...>
If you don't want to write a custom parser from scratch or within the framework something like Parse::RecDescent provides, you'll need to convert your file into valid XML before you could use XML::Parser or XML::Simple.
But if you do, doing what you need is a cinch ...
use XML::Simple;
my $xml = XMLin(<<__XML__);
<posts>
<post>
<jobnumber>1234</jobnumber>
<location>Somecity, NJ</location>
</post>
<post>
<jobnumber>87922</jobnumber>
<location>Othercity, AK</location>
</post>
</posts>
__XML__
foreach my $post ( @{ $xml->{'post'} } ) {
print "City: $post->{'location'}\n";
}
--k.