Washington, Nov 8 (IANS): Federal employees were furloughed for a combined total of 6.6 million days during the 16-day partial federal government shutdown starting Oct 1, the most number in all government shutdowns of the country, the White House said Thursday.

The shutdown that occurred last month inflicted completely unnecessary damage on the US economy and took a toll on families and businesses across the country, reported Xinhua citing the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in a report released Thursday.

It said at peak, about 850,000 individuals were furloughed each day. That number fell once most of the civilian employees with the Department of Defense were able to return to work during the shutdown.

The combination of the shutdown and debt limit brinkmanship cost 120,000 private sector jobs during the first two weeks of October, and multiple surveys have also shown that consumer and business confidence was badly damaged, it added.