In Alabama right now unemployed are making over $800 a week. Many, many are making more than if they were working. As I posted yesterday, $800 a week in south Alabama is significant money. There are a lot of people who will not go back to work until they have to.
That’s the next problem ...many people won’t want to make less actually working again.
If unemployment pays better than wages then maybe it’s time for employers to increase wages. Wages have failed to keep pace with inflation since the late 70’s. We the People are overdue for a raise, if only to keep up with the cost of living. If businesses are so determined to reopen during a pandemic they are going to have to start paying their workers more to compensate for the risk to the workers’ lives. This is just supply and demand, the lifeblood of the free market.