diff --git a/src/exec.cpp b/src/exec.cpp
index d9d5f0e5a..0437fb1b8 100644
--- a/src/exec.cpp
+++ b/src/exec.cpp
@@ -1049,7 +1049,7 @@ bool exec_job(parser_t &parser, const shared_ptr<job_t> &j, const io_chain_t &bl
     // If exec_error then a backgrounded job would have been terminated before it was ever assigned
     // a pgroup, so error out before setting last_pid.
     auto pgid = j->get_pgid();
-    if (j->is_foreground() && pgid.has_value()) {
+    if (!j->is_foreground() && pgid.has_value()) {
         parser.vars().set_one(L"last_pid", ENV_GLOBAL, to_string(*pgid));
     }