diff --git a/meta/lib/oe/utils.py b/meta/lib/oe/utils.py
index 82987e80d0..36f82dbbec 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oe/utils.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oe/utils.py
@@ -150,3 +150,7 @@ def trim_version(version, num_parts=2):
     parts = version.split(".")
     trimmed = ".".join(parts[:num_parts])
     return trimmed
+
+def cpu_count():
+    import multiprocessing
+    return multiprocessing.cpu_count()