Public education has been a major growth industry in the 1990s, expanding its employment by nearly 24 percent from 1988 to 1998. The 1.8 million jobs added in state and local government education functions placed this sector third among America's growth industries in the sheer magnitude of its employment rise. This report examines the record of the 1990s, comparing it to the experience of the 1980s. It reviews developments in public education overall, and separately at the state and local levels, in elementary and secondary education, with comparisons for instructional and other staff, and in higher education, libraries and other educational activities. It also explores comparative developments in educational services in the private sector, combining both nonprofit and profit-making education activities. Finally, it looks ahead to some key workforce challenges facing the educational enterprise at the outset of a new decade of demographic transition. The expansion of public elementary and high school employment accelerated in the 1990s, with the largest increase in the South and the smallest in the Northeast. Employment in public institutions of higher education increased in most states, with the largest increases virtually all in the South and West. Substantial growth in public education employment is projected in the years ahead. (DFR)