diff --git a/src/exec.cpp b/src/exec.cpp
index 376818dd4..86bc7ced1 100644
--- a/src/exec.cpp
+++ b/src/exec.cpp
@@ -1138,7 +1138,7 @@ void exec_job(parser_t &parser, job_t *j) {
         }
 
         if (child_spawned) {
-            child_set_group(j, p);
+            //posix_spawn'd processes won't SIGSTOP
             set_child_group(j, p->pid);
         }
         else if (child_forked) {
@@ -1147,17 +1147,17 @@ void exec_job(parser_t &parser, job_t *j) {
             pid_t pid_status{};
             if (waitpid(p->pid, &pid_status, WUNTRACED) != -1) {
                 //the child is SIGSTOP'd and is guaranteed to have called child_set_group() at this point.
-                set_child_group(j, p->pid); //update our own process group info to match
+                //but we only need to call set_child_group for the first process in the group.
+                //If needs_keepalive is set, this has already been called for the keepalive process
+                if (p->is_first_in_job) {
+                    set_child_group(j, p->pid);
+                }
                 //we are not unblocking the child via SIGCONT just yet to give the next process a chance to open
                 //the pipes and join the process group. We only unblock the last process in the job chain because
                 //no one awaits it.
-                if (!pipes_to_next_command)
-                {
-                    kill(p->pid, SIGCONT);
-                }
             }
             else {
-                debug(2, L"waitpid(%d) call in unblock_pid failed:!\n", p->pid);
+                debug(1, L"waitpid(%d) call in unblock_pid failed:!\n", p->pid);
                 wperror(L"waitpid");
             }
         }
@@ -1184,6 +1184,13 @@ void exec_job(parser_t &parser, job_t *j) {
         }
     }
 
+    //unblock the last process in the group
+    if (blocked_pid != -1)
+    {
+        kill(blocked_pid, SIGCONT);
+        blocked_pid = -1;
+    }
+
     // Clean up any file descriptors we left open.
     if (pipe_current_read >= 0) exec_close(pipe_current_read);
     if (pipe_current_write >= 0) exec_close(pipe_current_write);