As Biden touts clean-energy jobs, here's what employment in the field looks like today

President Joe Biden's push for emissions cuts relies heavily on the promise of jobs. The White House's statement on the ambitious climate-preserving goals features the word "jobs" no less than 13 times.

While the future of jobs is a hot topic of partisan debate, employment in America has already shifted toward clean energy. By the broadest measure, the clean-energy sector already employs more than 3 million workers, according to estimates from several nonprofits. That's even after last year's economic collapse created the first job loss recorded for the sector.  Tracking environmentally friendly jobs has historically been more challenging than tracking a single sector — like, say, manufacturing. So-called green jobs exist in nearly every sector and can cover many different types of workers, from high-paid executives to construction workers. But according to one analysis of federal data from the clean-energy group E2, the clean energy sector employs more people than work as waiters or waitresses, and there are five times as many green workers than there are lawyers in the U.S.