diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/libjson-c/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/libjson-c/package.py
index 75f3e130ad1575c3a174e53e50c4940cc9417fd4..662ed3cb5a26634ed6363f9e9142b7b074c56a80 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/libjson-c/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/libjson-c/package.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 ##############################################################################
 from spack import *
 
+
 class LibjsonC(Package):
     """ A JSON implementation in C """
     homepage = "https://github.com/json-c/json-c/wiki"
@@ -34,5 +35,5 @@ class LibjsonC(Package):
     def install(self, spec, prefix):
         configure('--prefix=%s' % prefix)
 
-        make()
+        make(parallel=False)
         make("install")