private sector

private + sector

private sector (plural private sectors)

1. (business) All organizations in an economy or jurisdiction that are not controlled by government, including privately owned businesses and not-for-profit organizations.

   After spending two decades at various government agencies, he returned to the private sector and took a job as a business consultant.

   • 2013 August 10, Schumpeter, “Cronies and capitols”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector.

• (business): public sector

• public sector