A study used data from the 1998 Current Population Survey to document job growth in the public and private sectors and examine the quality of jobs in terms of wages and benefits. Findings indicated public sector employment declined for both women and men during the period from 1979-98 with a somewhat sharper decline among men. In 1998, median earnings in the public sector were higher than in the private sector for most categories of workers. Privatization was likely to erode the wages and benefits of women workers, especially for African American and Hispanic women and those with less formal education. Unionization emerged as a central factor in understanding why the public sector pays better than the private sector. While there was clearly a gender bias in both sectors, women's wages were closer to men's wages in the public sector than in the private sector. The public sector did not, in general, offer exceptional opportunities for women to hold managerial and professional positions. The bottom line was that privatization, and the de-unionization that frequently accompanies it, were likely to prove detrimental to the economic welfare of women workers. (Two figures and two tables are appended.) (YLB)