diff --git a/packages/jest-config/src/getMaxWorkers.ts b/packages/jest-config/src/getMaxWorkers.ts
index b96024477d6b..bd1adf1cecc5 100644
--- a/packages/jest-config/src/getMaxWorkers.ts
+++ b/packages/jest-config/src/getMaxWorkers.ts
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ export default function getMaxWorkers(
     return 1;
   } else if (argv.maxWorkers) {
     // TODO: How to type this properly? Should probably use `coerce` from `yargs`
-    const maxWorkers = (argv.maxWorkers as unknown) as number | string;
+    const maxWorkers = argv.maxWorkers;
     const parsed = parseInt(maxWorkers as string, 10);
 
     if (
diff --git a/packages/jest-types/src/Config.ts b/packages/jest-types/src/Config.ts
index 5016143d0618..b5a479c884d5 100644
--- a/packages/jest-types/src/Config.ts
+++ b/packages/jest-types/src/Config.ts
@@ -452,7 +452,7 @@ export type Argv = Arguments<
     json: boolean;
     lastCommit: boolean;
     logHeapUsage: boolean;
-    maxWorkers: number;
+    maxWorkers: number | string;
     moduleDirectories: Array<string>;
     moduleFileExtensions: Array<string>;
     moduleNameMapper: string;