As an employer, the public sector might be expected to be more meritocratic than the private sector, because of its democratic values and more transparent appointments procedures. In this context meritocratic means that the employer only considers characteristics such as degree and grades, relevant for the position in question. The individuals in this study have completed one of four higher education degrees, and are aged 30-32 years (n = 22,133). Multinomial logistic regression analyses were employed. The results show that the public and the private sector are similar in that they both seem to prefer male graduates from old and well-established universities. One slight difference is that graduates' family and national backgrounds appear to be less relevant in the public sector than in the private sector. These differences are present even when several other educational factors are the same. (Contains 4 tables.)