diff --git a/doc/man1/flux-jobs.rst b/doc/man1/flux-jobs.rst
index 41244a7e4d41..29bf13d70fc3 100644
--- a/doc/man1/flux-jobs.rst
+++ b/doc/man1/flux-jobs.rst
@@ -275,6 +275,11 @@ string, "0s", "0.0", "0:00:00", or epoch time to a hyphen. For example, normally
 "{nodelist}" would output an empty string if the job has not yet run.
 By specifying, "{nodelist:h}", a hyphen would be presented instead.
 
+The special presentation type *W* can be used to adjust output alignment
+for wide characters.  It only works with left/right alignment formatting
+of the form "(<|>)N", for example ``{id.emoji:>12W}``.  It is used almost
+exclusively for emoji based outputs and typically used alongside ``+:``.
+
 The special suffix *+* can be used to indicate if a string was truncated
 by including a ``+`` character when truncation occurs. If both *h* and
 *+* are being used, then the *+* must appear after the *h*.
diff --git a/src/bindings/python/flux/util.py b/src/bindings/python/flux/util.py
index b489d74df885..514771d2264b 100644
--- a/src/bindings/python/flux/util.py
+++ b/src/bindings/python/flux/util.py
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 from typing import Mapping
 
 import yaml
+from wcwidth import wcswidth
 
 # tomllib added to standard library in Python 3.11
 # flux-core minimum is Python 3.6.
@@ -578,6 +579,26 @@ def format_field(self, value, spec):
             basecases = empty_outputs()
             value = "-" if str(value) in basecases else str(value)
             spec = spec[:-1] + "s"
+
+        # Normal python output will not consider emoji width with
+        # width formatting.  So we will adjust the output width of
+        # field accordingly to account for it if the "W" modifier
+        # is specified.
+        if spec.endswith("W") and isinstance(value, str):
+            match = re.search(r"^([<>])(\d+)W", spec)
+            if match:
+                align = match[1]
+                width = int(match[2])
+                display_width = wcswidth(value)
+                normal_width = len(value)
+                width_diff = display_width - normal_width
+                if width_diff > 0 and width > width_diff:
+                    width -= width_diff
+                    spec = f"{align}{width}s"
+        # if spec was not modified above, need to convert "W" to "s"
+        if spec.endswith("W"):
+            spec = spec[:-1] + "s"
+
         retval = super().format_field(value, spec)
 
         if denote_truncation and len(retval) < len(str(value)):
@@ -734,6 +755,7 @@ class FormatSpec:
             "precision_str",
             "type",
             "hyphen",
+            "wide",
             "truncate",
         )
 
@@ -758,6 +780,7 @@ def __init__(self, spec):
                 r"(?:(?P<decimal>\.)(?P<precision_str>\d+))?"
                 r"(?P<type>[bcdeEfFgGnosxX%])?"
                 r"(?P<hyphen>h)?"
+                r"(?P<wide>W)?"
                 r"(?P<truncate>\+)?"
             )
             try:
@@ -1037,7 +1060,7 @@ def sentinel_keys():
         for item in items:
             for entry in lst:
                 result = formatter.format(entry["fmt"], item)
-                width = 0 if result in empty else len(result)
+                width = 0 if result in empty else wcswidth(result)
                 if width > entry["maxwidth"]:
                     entry["maxwidth"] = width
                 if width > entry["width"]:
diff --git a/src/cmd/flux-jobs.py b/src/cmd/flux-jobs.py
index e66ca0e14f7e..0896c9dc1a14 100755
--- a/src/cmd/flux-jobs.py
+++ b/src/cmd/flux-jobs.py
@@ -48,8 +48,8 @@ class FluxJobsConfig(UtilConfig):
         "cute": {
             "description": "Cute flux-jobs format string (default with emojis)",
             "format": (
-                "{id.f58:>12} ?:{queue:<8.8} +:{username:<8} {name:<10.10+} "
-                "{status_emoji:>5.5} {ntasks:>6} {nnodes:>6h} "
+                "+:{id.emoji:>12W} ?:{queue:<8.8} +:{username:<8} {name:<10.10+} "
+                "+:{status_emoji:>5W} {ntasks:>6} +:{nnodes:>6h} "
                 "{contextual_time!F:>8h} {contextual_info}"
             ),
         },
diff --git a/t/t2800-jobs-cmd.t b/t/t2800-jobs-cmd.t
index 28a3f9b9df42..78574f1a4498 100755
--- a/t/t2800-jobs-cmd.t
+++ b/t/t2800-jobs-cmd.t
@@ -554,6 +554,17 @@ test_expect_success 'flux-jobs --format={id.f58},{id.f58plain},{id.hex},{id.doth
 	test_cmp ids.XX.expected ids.XX.out
 '
 
+# N.B. don't use test_cmp for match, there can be minor differences in spacing depending
+# on terminal and font.  Just do a grep.
+test_expect_success 'flux-jobs --format={id.emoji},{id.emoji:>12W},{id.emoji:<12W} works' '
+	flux jobs -ano "{id.emoji},{id.emoji:>12W},{id.emoji:<12W}" \
+	    > ids.emoji.out &&
+	for id in $(cat all.ids); do
+		idemoji=$(flux job id --to=emoji $id) &&
+		grep ${idemoji} ids.emoji.out
+	done
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'flux-jobs --format={userid},{username} works' '
 	flux jobs --no-header -a --format="{userid},{username}" > user.out &&
 	id=`id -u` &&