Since the outbreak of hostilities, Iranian authorities have maintained a sweeping internet shutdown, and as its impact reaches the economy, public anxiety and concern are mounting.

Al Jazeera reported on the 5th (local time) “The Iranian government is not explaining how the already hard-hit domestic digital industry and the internationally isolated economy can endure in the coming months and years”.

The internet monitoring firm NetBlocks said that day that the internet shutdown in Iran had reached day 37 and called it “the longest national internet shutdown ever recorded in any country in the world”.

As the shutdown drags on, information technology (IT) firms and other businesses that rely on online operations have begun cutting staff, dealing a direct blow to the economy. Kamran, a product designer at an IT company in Karaj near Tehran, said he had recently received a notice of dismissal, adding, “I survived the large round of layoffs in January, but this time it was unavoidable”. He added, “I looked for local gatherings that help people find jobs, but there are so many job seekers that it seems very difficult to find work in the near future”.

A Tehran resident also told Al Jazeera that the previous day, they had gathered at home with friends and, through brief internet connections, caught up on the latest news, adding, “Some of us had already been laid off, and we were worried not to mention next month but even about whether electricity would come on this weekend”.

The recent bombing of major employers in Iran, such as steel plants and petrochemical complexes, is also expected to lead to an increase in unemployment. The previous day, the United States and Israel attacked targets including the Mahshahr petrochemical special zone in Khuzestan Province in southwestern Iran. Iranian authorities said that the airstrikes had halted operations at production facilities within the petrochemical zone.

Inflation has also become severe since the onset of war. According to statistics from Iranian authorities, prices last month rose 5.6% from the previous month. Many businesses have closed, and as people refrain from travel for fear of being caught in unpredictable airstrikes, commercial activity in Iran is slowing, the dissident outlet Iran International reported.

Even in these circumstances, the Iranian authorities continue to control public opinion and impose repressive measures on the population. According to Mizan, a media outlet under the judiciary, the authorities carried out the executions of Mohammad Amin Biglari and Shahin Vahedparast, who had been indicted on charges of attempting to storm military facilities during the anti-government protests in January. The Iranian prosecution office warned politicians and public figures that day not to act or speak in ways that undermine “national interests, unity, and social cohesion during wartime”.