private sector 
noun
The part of the national economy that is not under direct state control: the government had hoped to make the private sector take over nuclear power stations [as modifier]: private sector practices...
- This is because they are so widespread and deeply ingrained in both the public and private sectors of the economy.
- Some see it as an ominous sign of things to come in the relationship between the public and private sectors in economic policy.
- Graduate students of the school were employed both in the public and private sectors of the economy.