diff --git a/mm/vmstat.c b/mm/vmstat.c
index 4ebc17d948cb..c54fd2924f25 100644
--- a/mm/vmstat.c
+++ b/mm/vmstat.c
@@ -1483,6 +1483,7 @@ static void __init start_shepherd_timer(void)
 		BUG();
 	cpumask_copy(cpu_stat_off, cpu_online_mask);
 
+	vmstat_wq = alloc_workqueue("vmstat", WQ_FREEZABLE|WQ_MEM_RECLAIM, 0);
 	schedule_delayed_work(&shepherd,
 		round_jiffies_relative(sysctl_stat_interval));
 }
@@ -1550,7 +1551,6 @@ static int __init setup_vmstat(void)
 
 	start_shepherd_timer();
 	cpu_notifier_register_done();
-	vmstat_wq = alloc_workqueue("vmstat", WQ_FREEZABLE|WQ_MEM_RECLAIM, 0);
 #endif
 #ifdef CONFIG_PROC_FS
 	proc_create("buddyinfo", S_IRUGO, NULL, &fragmentation_file_operations);