It can both be true that $600 is a disincentive to find a job in some cases as @stevenmnuchin1 says, AND that this has no effect on employment. When there are too many applicants for the few jobs we have, one person not applying makes no difference to the job being filled. https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/1289915578627624960
That’s why it doesn’t make sense to die on the altar of denying any disincentive effects from unemployment insurance, and fighting people who see these effecfs in real life. The key is the overall effect on employment and poverty.
There is some evidence that unemployment insurance decreased job applications, yet employers still have more applications per job than before the CARES Act: see our evidence here: https://twitter.com/mioana/status/1288935860809990144?s=21 https://twitter.com/mioana/status/1288935860809990144
Overall, as these studies show, we don’t see a negative employment effect from the extra $600 a week unemployment benefits https://tobin.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/C-19%20Articles/CARES-UI_identification_vF(1).pdf https://twitter.com/arindube/status/1289333056227115008?s=21 https://twitter.com/arindube/status/1289333056227115008
The evidence from the Great Recession is very much consistent with the evidence from this recession: while more generous unemployment insurance decreased job applications ( http://marinescu.eu/publication/marinescu-general-2017/), it did not increase unemployment ( https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/134/1/227/5076383?redirectedFrom=fulltext).