One upcoming form of this is "large-scale 3D printing", to wit: rather than hiring a bunch of individually cheap workers to assemble a small building, a business can haul in a clever machine which can "print" the main structure with concrete, operated by just a few skilled workers. Example
The nature of human progress is to build a business serving a new need, satisfy that need, and to reduce the resources needed (human and otherwise) to produce it.
Bucky Fuller - Ephemeralization
the ability of technological advancement to do “more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemeralization