diff --git a/gnu/packages/commencement.scm b/gnu/packages/commencement.scm
index 265b709a11..53ba7189b4 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/commencement.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/commencement.scm
@@ -284,7 +284,11 @@ (define perl-boot0
                            (lambda _
                              (substitute* "Configure"
                                (("^libswanted=(.*)pthread" _ before)
-                                (string-append "libswanted=" before)))))))))))))
+                                (string-append "libswanted=" before)))))))
+                     ;; Do not configure with '-Dusethreads' since pthread
+                     ;; support is missing.
+                     ((#:configure-flags configure-flags)
+                      `(delete "-Dusethreads" ,configure-flags))))))))
     (package-with-bootstrap-guile
      (package-with-explicit-inputs perl
                                    %boot0-inputs
diff --git a/gnu/packages/perl.scm b/gnu/packages/perl.scm
index fbccff2550..b5e6e54f7f 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/perl.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/perl.scm
@@ -73,7 +73,8 @@ (define-public perl
           "-Dinstallstyle=lib/perl5"
           "-Duseshrplib"
           (string-append "-Dlocincpth=" libc "/include")
-          (string-append "-Dloclibpth=" libc "/lib")))
+          (string-append "-Dloclibpth=" libc "/lib")
+          "-Dusethreads"))
        #:phases
        (modify-phases %standard-phases
          (add-before 'configure 'setup-configure