>The huge gains in value enjoyed by Amazon, Walmart and Facebook during this Pandemic when record unemployment exists worldwide further suggests your postulate about the relative low value of the average worker and the potential for businesses to not only survive but thrive in a low employment environment are scarily evident. 

The amount of profit per worker is astounding in these companies and that is based on the average. If one was to look what the top 10% of them get, it makes the eyes water. 

>But I suspect employment as we once knew it has been changed forever.

Yes and this is why the education systems will collapse from what they are today - as they no longer satisfy the needs of why they were created. They aren't about gaining knowledge, they are about training conformity. 

>The writing is on the wall, but how many of us are reading it?

Very few - but we are educated enough to be illiterate in these things.