The consequences of floods that affected the area of Serbia in 2014 indicated a very low level of preparedness of population to respond to natural disasters. Therefore, the aim of quantitative research is to examine the impact of fear on the willingness of citizens to respond to a natural disaster caused by the flood in the Republic of Serbia. Bearing in mind all local communities in Serbia where floods occurred or there is a high risk of flooding, randomly it was selected sample consisting 19 of 150 municipalities and 23 towns and the city of Belgrade The survey used strategy of testing in households with the use of a multi-stage random sample. The research results show that: citizens who are employed, in a higher percentage/greater extent compared to citizens who are not: have taken certain preventive measures aimed at reducing the tangible consequences of floods, would pay funds to an account to help flood victims, would engage in providing help to flood victims in the field, heavy rains make them to think on preparedness for response and water level rise, they engaged in preparations for at least 6 months, do not do anything that would raise the level of preparedness to the next level etc. The originality of the research lies in the fact that in Serbia it has never been conducted research to examine the state of preparedness of citizens to respond. Bearing in mind that the research is based on the territory of Serbia, conclusions can be generalized to the entire population. The research results can be used when creating a strategy for improving the level of preparedness of citizens to respond.
Key words: natural disasters, floods, citizens, employment, preparedness.
For citations: Cvetković, V. (2016). Influence of employment status on citizen preparedness for response to natural disasasters. NBP – Journal of criminalistics and law, in press.
