Negotiating pay when I have been out of work - 7 weeks in

I have been out of work for 7 weeks and feel pressure to accept less. I worked as a forklift operator before this. I looked up ranges in Charlotte and they vary a lot. How do you research fairly?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 8 months ago, and it got easier once I kept a simple log of every call and form.