SINGAPORE, Aug 17 Reuters The dollar pushed the yen deeper into intervention territory on Thursday as a resilient U.S. economy underscored the need for higherforlonger interest rates, contrasting with a still strikingly dovish Bank of Japan.

The Australian dollar sank to a ninemonth low, taking its New Zealand counterpart along with it, after data showed that Australia39;s employment unexpectedly fell in July while the jobless rate ticked higher.

The yen weakened to 146.565 per dollar, its lowest level since November, having come under renewed pressure as a result of interest rate differentials between the U.S. and Japan39;s ultralow rate environment. It last bought 146.37 per dollar.

The Japanese currency has come under close watch since it touched the key 145 per dollar level for the first time in about nine months last Friday, crossing into a zone that sparked an intervention by Japanese authorities in September and October last year.

That sharp rise in dollaryen definitely has increased the risk that the Japanese authorities will have to step into the FX market again to support the yen, said Carol Kong, a currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA.

Meanwhile, the dollar has drawn support from a recent run of resilient U.S. economic data, which reinforced the view that interest rates will remain at restrictive levels for some time.

Data on Wednesday showed that U.S. singlefamily home building surged in July and permits for future construction…