Discuss HN: Affects of Efficiency Increases on Economy

So I was recently sitting around watching an episode of Futurama -- namely, How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back -- and I got to thinking about bureaucracy and efficiency in the workplace. It's generally accepted that a large majority of people don't work at maximum capacity or efficiency during their day jobs. I think I even recall PG estimating that we generally work at around 30% of our max (source?). Every day I see articles and discussions on how we can increase our work efficiency and get the most out of our working hours. Clearly it makes sense for each of us to work better -- more free time, less stress, etc. It also makes sense for businesses to want this -- time is money, mistakes are bad, and unnecessary jobs arise out of operating inefficiency.

Where this thought gets interesting, though, is when you think about what would actually happen to our economy if we really did eliminate large amounts of efficiency in the workplace... It would stand to reason that by working more efficiently, many unnecessary jobs could be cut across the country. While that would save tons of money for corporations, it would also mean a greatly increased unemployment rate, which would surely be bad for economy. Others might argue, however, that this saved money would result in more money for research and exploring new technology which would ultimately lead to more jobs. It's all purely speculation, but the repercussions could lead to something slightly disturbing -- that slacking and inefficiency, to an extent, are actually quite helpful to the health of our economy. What do you think?