The two types of employment should be symbiotic although a large private sector doesn't necessarily need a public sector to function. Ideologically I would always favour private sector benefits over public sctor concessions as the private sector will be the part that provides growth and sustainability whereas a public sector, even at it's most effecient will only serve to recirculate funds rather then generate. The ultimate irony of a Labour government swelling a public sector in order to boost employment in a capitalist economic system is now finally coming back to haunt us as the economies cannot take it.