> Is there going to be enough companies left doing things 'the old way' to keep employment numbers up even though it's less cost effective?

In the medium term there will be new jobs and applications that were impossible before. A company should expand and diversify instead of firing their people, if they care about profits that is. We also have to tackle global warming and other pesky problems on a grand scale. In the long term I think we'll be post scarcity by a combination of automation and smart materials.