diff --git a/ask_for_jobs b/ask_for_jobs
index 6135afbb..5d417933 100755
--- a/ask_for_jobs
+++ b/ask_for_jobs
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@ IMAGES = {
 
 def manage_jobs(service):
     # Get queued jobs
-    queued = json.load(
-        urllib.request.urlopen(VRE_MANAGER + "?service=" + service + "&status=queued")
+    queued = json.loads(
+        urllib.request.urlopen(VRE_MANAGER + "?service=" + service + "&status=queued").read().decode('utf-8')
     )
 
     # Return if no jobs are available
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@ def manage_jobs(service):
     # Get a list of compute nodes
     compute_nodes = subprocess.run(
         ["docker", "ps", "--filter", "ancestor=" + IMAGES[service], "--format", "{{.Names}}"],
-        encoding="utf-8",
         stdout=subprocess.PIPE
     ).stdout.split()