NEW YORK — On a recent afternoon at the venerable Diamond Dealers Club, many of the chairs and long tables remained empty on the vast trading floor as a few dozen men haggled over precious stones.

The cafeteria's dining room had a ghost town feel and only a couple of men drank coffee at the food counter. Most of the hustle and bustle was happening in the club's synagogue and an area where retired members could play backgammon.

"I miss the activity that used to go on here," said Ray Perlman, chairman of the club's board of directors. "I worry about the diamond business. I think in the future it's going to be a different kind of business."

These aren't the best of times for brokers and smaller dealers within the diamond industry as it evolves. Merchants are under increasing pressure from operations in India and China.

One of the biggest changes has come thanks to the Internet, where diamonds are now bought and sold, squeezing out the minor players that help populate the $143 billion jewelry business.

"The industry is still very healthy but the people making the money has changed," Perlman said, noting that the Indian community for instance was doing the vast majority the diamond polishing business. "The Americans are in competition. They are fighting for their lives."

For decades, Manhattan's Diamond District has been a bustling center of commerce in New York City. More than 2,600 businesses operate in or near the one-block stretch on 47th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

Every day, the diamond merchants do what they've been doing for decades: cut, buy and sell the precious stones. But underneath this veneer of a seemingly stable business, plenty of challenges lie ahead.

"People know there is less business," said diamond cutter Moshe Brach, 29, who works in the district at Robert Klein Diamonds. "People are afraid to come work in the Diamond District because it's much, much slower than it used to be. Only the very good cutters make a decent living."

But experts say the district's diamond dealers are in a tough spot because the current state of the business.

"What you hear on the commercial side is what someone called the bookends being more healthy than the middle part," said Ralph Destino, chairman of the Gemological Institute of America. "The mining is doing very well and so is the retail selling. But in the middle you have the diamond cutters and diamonds dealers. Their margins are being squeezed" by the growth of the Internet.