(to follow catlin) Northwest Airlines is not alone. Hundreds of Minnesota companies have announced layoffs in recent months, including American express Financial Advisors, Honeywell, 3M and ADC Telecommunications. The state dislocated workers office has counted more than 20,000 mass layoffs in the past year... a number officials say represents only SOME of the total jobs lost. John Fossum is the Director of the Industrial Relations Center at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. He says despite those dramatic numbers- at this point- the ecomonic downturn in Minnesota is mild: