We must have different definitions of "essential". I'm curious which jobs you're referring to, because to my understanding, every aspect of society that I consider essential, has existed since before the advent of GPUs.

> every aspect of society that I consider essential, has existed since before the advent of GPUs

Modern computers have allowed these 'forever existing' technologies to scale to our population growth. Try building freeways without modern computers, or performing modern medical interventions without them.

I'm guessing CAD and engineering uses?

CAD doesn't really use GPU power, only a basic viewport that any integrated potato can render. Related simulation stuff (CFD, FEM) can be done with GPU compute but it seems that CPU is usually good enough.

Probably the most critical usage of GPUs is scientific simulations for biology/medicine, climate, space, etc.