Tldr: current and worsening population decline means less employees per job. A mass of retiring babyboomers means capital is going to be expensive again, which means automation will be more difficult. Pay will rise or the Times will get even more interesting.
The babyboomers were the largest generation in American history at about 76M births. Gen X had about 65M births. Millennials had about 72M. Gen Z about 68M possibly as few as 63M the numbers are a little iffy. I've heard from numerous sources They are smaller than Gen X but I could not find any hard numbers for that. The next generation is shaping up to be even smaller.
Combine the above with dropping participation rates in the job market and there is nobody to work anymore.
Immigration won't be an option to cover the missing labor as The rest of the world is shaping up along similar lines or are going to be duplicating Japan's demographics without any of Japan's social and cultural structures that allowed them to weather a demographic collapse. The US, Sweden, and France are the only developed nations that will not face some degree of collapse in population. Most of south america and asia is now hovering around replacment rates ~ 2.1-3ish births with only Africa actually growing its population. There will not be any masses for the shores.
Automation will be implemented somewhat but as someone who does automation for a living i can tell you it is expensive. the median age of babyboomer retirement was this year which coincides with increasing interest rates as all their retirement monies began to be spent and no longer saved. Meaning research, development, and just buying automation becomes more expensive.
Almost 20 years ago i worked in a restaurant with an old semi retired chef who just came in to help with prep work to keep himself busy. He several times spoke about how the industry used to be different because wages were higher. That chain restaurants and fast casual and modern fast food places basically couldn't exist back then because people cost too much money and there wouldn't any profit. Fast food places were like in and out, two or three items max. Most restaurants were family operated because free labor and they lived over the restaurant. There were some special cases like greasy spoons, deli's, bbq stands, or fishfry on the docks where the recipes were quick to make or cheap as dirt. (Yeah he went on at length how expensive bbq had gotten) Anything else was a “Steakhouse” or pretty fancy in genral. His general opinion was that once wages started creeping back up for some reason was that the first two signs would be fast food places and fast casual places reducing the number of items on their menus and the second would be owners complaining about how nobody wants to work anymore.
Just a rant and a new catchphrase to throw around. “The is nobody to work anymore.” I guess gird your loins and get ready because times are going to continue to get more interesting.