diff --git a/oarstats.py b/oarstats.py
index f890dc4c0a4e44f672de24f8cef01ce65962d988..bb502c539ec20f026649a9d9d8176c698c065ca0 100755
--- a/oarstats.py
+++ b/oarstats.py
@@ -3,7 +3,12 @@
 
 import argparse
 import logging
-import yaml
+import sys
+try:
+    import yaml
+except ImportError:
+    print("Package 'pyyaml' needs to be installed to be able to use this script!", file=sys.stderr)
+    exit(1)
 import subprocess
 from collections import defaultdict
 import re