You can hear the frustration in their voices, see the concern on their faces.

For proprietors with shops along narrow Main Street, Auburn, USA, these are long, tough days.

Business remains slow for restaurateurs and retailers trying to regain their financial footing in a deep and devastating recession.

Aside from loyal customers, the sidewalk traffic is sporadic at best, and the grim realization is setting in that it will be a slow, agonizing recovery, especially for those who earn a living in the heart of the city.

“We have not seen the signs that downtown is picking up,” admitted Jim Rottle, while looking on from inside his family’s longstanding family apparel and footwear business on East Main. “Weekend business is good, but during the week it has been quiet.”

Dave Comstock has owned and operated his bindery and bookshop in downtown Auburn since 1984. He has seen his share of ups and downs, but nothing quite like this.

“We’re surviving, but that’s it,” Comstock said. “I would like us to do a little better than just survive. Everybody is affected. I’m just glad we haven’t lost more businesses.”

Auburn is not alone in the small business crisis.

With the country mired in 10 percent unemployment, commerce remains down, the backwash from the 8.4 million jobs lost since the recession began more than two years ago.

Stock values continue to fall. Economic growth continues to stagger, albeit upwardly by some indicators. Home prices might be “bottoming out,” but foreclosures are projected to set a record this year, according to private forecasts.

In Washington alone, the state Employment Security Department reports, 106,200 jobs were lost in 2009, the worst 12-month figure in recent history.

And Boeing took its hits, shedding more than 3,700 jobs in the last year, with more announced this season – about 500 in the Puget Sound area – as part of the 10,000 layoffs Boeing originally targeted for 2009.

Such economic plight hasn’t eased the tension on small business owners trying to survive the aftershock of the worst economy since the Great Depression.

Business owners are doing all they can to persevere. Some shops have cut overhead, trimmed hours and controlled costs. But shops have closed for good. Vacancies abound.

Those owners still in business are doing so without much support from state and federal hands.

Comstock, for one, doesn’t expect to receive any help for his struggling business.

“Not a damn thing. They’re not going to do anything for little bitty businesses. They never have,” he said. “And the state’s not going to do anything but increase our taxes, like the county’s doing.

“There’s no cooperation from government at all for small businesses. It doesn’t exist,” Comstock added. “So we’re having to tough it out and try to get through this.”

The cost of doing business in the state remains high. And the state’s proposal to increase the sales tax by three tenths of a cent until 2013 to narrow a $2.8 billion budget deficit doesn’t sit too well with business owners trying to drum up customers.

“The state is spending way more than they’re taking in,” said Ken Nelson, who owns and operates Nelson’s Jewelry on Main Street.

Unfavorable taxes and high insurance costs make it difficult for small businesses to exist, let alone get established.

Colleen Barry was one of the few who decided to start a business in the face of a recession. Her cozy downtown restaurant, The Kitsch-en, has withstood some lean days. Barry insists she will stay open at a time when other owners have pulled out of Auburn.

“It’s been frustrating and depressing some days, other days you’re thinking maybe things will turn around,” Barry said. “There’s no rhyme or reason to it. You have to take it on a daily basis.”

Despite typical slow sales for the first quarter of this year, some owners remain guardedly optimistic.

“We can always do better,” said Carol Nedderman, who works at Ultimate Hobbies. “What would really help is if we had more stores open, more foot traffic. But it will be slow, I’m sure.”

Nelson added: “I’m more optimistic than I have been.”

Rottles Clothing and Shoes has been forced to be more creative in marketing its diversified store to draw in more customers. The second half of 2010 will say plenty about how well the economy is doing.

“We did less business in 2009 than we did in 2008, but we’re looking to rebound from that,” Jim Rottle said. “But were anxiously waiting for the city’s projects to culminate and get more people to downtown.”

The city held a grand opening this week for the One Main Professional Center, a three-story downtown office building.

Perhaps it is the beginning of a brighter day for a downtown that could use an injection of hope.

And perhaps Auburn’s dysfunctional and bickering Auburn Downtown Association can come to a consensus, come up with new ideas and find new ways to generate business. Perhaps the downtown can create new local ownership, new leadership.

Until then, small business – as Auburn knows it – will trudge on.

“Have we bottomed out? I don’t know,” Comstock said as he watched customers peruse his bookshelves. “We will know more later this year.”