Does Mechanisation and automation actually reduce the number of labourers overall?

One of the previous threads on this -

Short version: studies looking over history have been done and to date technological advance have not resulted in less employment. Higher productivity yes and new jobs that result from that higher productivity. Not necessarily jobs making or servicing the machine but that occurred because of how much more was being produced for less.

The cotton gin example was given. In that case the “jobs” were mostly filled by slaves. The gin reduced the number of slaves needed to process the cotton once picked. It did not take too many to build or service the machines. Result was cheap cotton which drove massive increases in demand which required more slaves to grow and pick the cotton that was now in higher demand. Jobs also created in the north by the availability of cheap cotton allowing for products using cotton to be cheaper …

Historically labor needs have not decreased as a result of automation and mechanization, from the first needle used to sew hides together, to the plow, on. Is this time different? No one can know.