diff --git a/src/plugins/jobacct_gather/common/common_jag.c b/src/plugins/jobacct_gather/common/common_jag.c
index f16d908d7487a0f418dc165156becf6e06e0279f..81c50d23a2bfb7b057b43f84e2719d029b2d9bc6 100644
--- a/src/plugins/jobacct_gather/common/common_jag.c
+++ b/src/plugins/jobacct_gather/common/common_jag.c
@@ -518,11 +518,7 @@ static void _handle_stats(List prec_list, char *proc_stat_file,
 	if (fcntl(fd, F_SETFD, FD_CLOEXEC) == -1)
 		error("%s: fcntl(%s): %m", __func__, proc_stat_file);
 
-	prec = try_xmalloc(sizeof(jag_prec_t));
-	if (prec == NULL) {	/* Avoid killing slurmstepd on malloc failure */
-		fclose(stat_fp);
-		return;
-	}
+	prec = xmalloc(sizeof(jag_prec_t));
 
 	if (!tres_count) {
 		assoc_mgr_lock_t locks = {