Ask HN: Do companies prefer junior or senior devs during a recession?

I have a couple of acquaintances that want to make a career switch over to tech as developers and asked for my input on whether I thought that was good move. Obviously there's a lot that goes into answering that, but specifically on the job prospects front, I'm not sure what to say.

A year ago the demand for devs was so high, that even if the market heavily favored senior devs, you saw companies having to make concessions. But with all the recent layoffs and hiring freezes, that's starting to change.

We're most likely heading to a recession, and in that scenario hiring would slow down considerably but not probably not completely stop. What would the companies that are still hiring prefer, junior or senior devs? On the one hand senior devs means they can do more with fewer employees and they don't have to train them, but junior devs are also less expensive.

Another way to phrase this is: if you knew of someone who was trying to learn to code, and better job opportunities was one of their main motivators, would you suggest that they reconsider based on where the market is headed?