diff --git a/compiler/optimizer/parallelize.go b/compiler/optimizer/parallelize.go
index 866dca8dd..a7c3507ce 100644
--- a/compiler/optimizer/parallelize.go
+++ b/compiler/optimizer/parallelize.go
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 package optimizer
 
 import (
+	"reflect"
+
 	"github.com/brimdata/super/compiler/dag"
 	"github.com/brimdata/super/order"
 )
@@ -299,7 +301,12 @@ func (o *Optimizer) concurrentPath(seq dag.Seq, sortKeys order.SortKeys) (length
 			// upstream sort is the same as the Load destination sort we
 			// request a merge and set the Load operator to do a sorted write.
 			return k, nil, false, nil
-		case *dag.ForkOp, *dag.ScatterOp, *dag.HeadOp, *dag.TailOp, *dag.UniqOp, *dag.FuseOp,
+		case *dag.SwitchOp:
+			if hasAggregate(op) {
+				return 0, nil, false, nil
+			}
+			return k, sortExprsForSortKeys(sortKeys), true, nil
+		case *dag.ForkOp, *dag.HeadOp, *dag.ScatterOp, *dag.TailOp, *dag.UniqOp, *dag.FuseOp,
 			*dag.HashJoinOp, *dag.InferOp, *dag.JoinOp, *dag.OutputOp:
 			return k, sortExprsForSortKeys(sortKeys), true, nil
 		default:
@@ -316,6 +323,15 @@ func (o *Optimizer) concurrentPath(seq dag.Seq, sortKeys order.SortKeys) (length
 	return len(seq), sortExprsForSortKeys(sortKeys), true, nil
 }
 
+func hasAggregate(op dag.Op) bool {
+	var found bool
+	walkT(reflect.ValueOf(op), func(a *dag.AggregateOp) *dag.AggregateOp {
+		found = true
+		return a
+	})
+	return found
+}
+
 func sortExprsForSortKeys(keys order.SortKeys) []dag.SortExpr {
 	var exprs []dag.SortExpr
 	for _, k := range keys {
diff --git a/compiler/ztests/par-switch.yaml b/compiler/ztests/par-switch.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9952d70a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compiler/ztests/par-switch.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+# A switch operator containing an aggregate operator cannot be parallelized.
+script: |
+  super compile -vam -C -P 2 'from /dev/null | switch default ( aggregate count() ) | sort count'
+
+outputs:
+  - name: stdout
+    data: |
+      file /dev/null unordered
+      | switch
+        case true (
+          aggregate
+              count:=count()
+          | values count
+        )
+      | sort count asc nulls last
+      | output main