Dive summary:

• Fannie Mae wants to know the future of the U.S. housing market, naturally, so it had its analysts look at where housing appear to be headed and what that means for home-building employment.
• The good news is that home construction employment should expand 20% between last year and 2016 – three times the overall economy's expected expansion – but the bad news is that even at that clip, there likely will be 1 million fewer jobs than there were when things fell apart in 2006.
• Part of the reason is when one measures the jobs – housing starts peaked in 2005, so employment was already down a little the next year, and 2006 is the target for what is being called "normal" home-building employment.

From the article:

If housing starts keep up with expectations and return to normal levels in 2016, it is predicted that residential construction employment will rise to nearly 2.5 million jobs. ...