Assessment of the covid-19 pandemic on the employment and livelihood of the traditional fishing society of Iran

The impact of the covid-19 pandemic on job opportunities losing and life quality reduction of the traditional fisherman community of Iran in order to guide the interventions to maintain the employment and provide the livelihood of the fishing communities were studied in 2021 through an online electronic questionnaire. The data collection was done in a simple random way by sending the link of the questionnaire to the fishing community using the WhatsApp social network. The data quantification method was used to describe the results. A total of 693 questionnaires were received, of which 98.6% were men and 1.4% were women. On the other hand, 76.9% of the interviewees were young people under 50 years old. The results showed that 61.3% of the interviewees confirmed that at least one of their family members lost their job, 84.5% stated that their income decreased, and about 83.2% declared that they had lost their jobs for more than a month due to the spread of the Corona virus. Staying at home to avoid being exposed to the disease as the main reason for unemployment was declared by 65.3% of interviewers. Almost 32% of interviewees stated that they have the possibility of finding an alternative job, and among them, free labor jobs with 42.5% and agriculture with 25.8% were the most important alternative ways of generating income. The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has negatively affected the livelihood of the Iranian fishing society, 89.3% of the fishing society was generally worried about preparing food during the Covid-19 pandemic period, and 59.6% were not able to provide their health and medical items. The results of this research recommend the intervention measures of the government regarding the livelihood of the fishing community during unemployment due to crises.