I came across a list of jokes popular in the Soviet Union. They were called anekdoty (or little stories) by the general populace.
Here's one I don't understand:
In a school in the republic of Georgia the teacher asked the students to tell about their fathers.
"Turashvili, tell about your father."
"My father grows oranges. He takes them to Moscow, sells there and makes good money."
"Now you, Beridze."
"My father grows laurel leaves. He takes them to Moscow, sells there, and makes good money."
"Now you, Klividze."
"My father works in the Division for the Fight Against Embezzlements and Speculations. When Beridze's and Turashvili's fathers go to Moscow, they always first see my father. So he makes good money."
"Now you, Chavchavadze."
"My father is a chemical engineer."
The class burst in laughter.
"Children," the teacher said. "It's not good to laugh at somebody's grief."
This joke implies that Chemical Engineers were poorly treated in the Soviet Union. Assuming that the anecdote is authentic, what could be the reasons for such a counter-intuitive practice?
Engineering was widely seen as a generic placeholder mediocre occupation in the Soviet Union. While it required university education, wages were comparable or lower than those of blue collar workers. Retail workers had lower wages, but they had better access to consumer goods and that made their jobs more prestigious.
This article in Russian is the best academic source I was able to find on the topic of prestige of engineering professions in the Soviet Union.
The "chemical" part is probably something that was added in translation. Chemical engineers generally had pretty good salaries(Russian source) and were not lumped into that generic engineer image.