That jobs are created seems to me to be more convincing, but I leave that as a matter of opinion substantiated only to the degree that I have in my OP.
> There is also something a bit odd in my mind about looking at human existence in terms of needed occupations. > Isn’t the entire point of technology to eliminate work?
From a certain point of view, yes. Economically valuable work is only needed to the degree that it costs something to attain a (licit) good and to the degree that the good is desired by someone else. If those desires could be satisfied without cost, no real opportunity for a market exists because no need for exchange exists. But I cannot imagine that that situation could ever obtain. And therefore, because it could never obtain, the only thing most people can exchange for a desired good is something obtained through the exchange of labor for capital. So it's a bit moot since labor appears endemic to the human condition.
I just don't see why automation of one thing necessarily means a net loss of jobs. If anything, automation entails complex technology and complex technology, among other things, requires labor to produce and to maintain.